Children of War
by werewolf36
Summary: Humans have had a long love affair with war. Throughout history, ever since man discovered the killing power of rock and bone, mankind has become addicted to violence. Some even claim that Humans are the 'Masters of War'. But this was just the hubris of those who had never encountered another intelligent species... right? Alternate First Contact
1. Timeline

**Authors Note: Hello everyone! Here I am with a new story that I hope you'll all like. I won't take up much of your time, but I just wanted to say that I'm new to writing Sci-Fi so if I get anything wrong let me know, and please suspend your disbelief a bit for the initial dates of the timeline. Thank you, now enjoy! An actual chapter will be out within a week of posting this!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own Mass Effect. It belong to Bioware.**

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 **2051:** The UN dissolves amidst rising tension between the Big Three; The US, Russia, and China. Mere days later, most of the nations of Earth merge into four new Superpowers; The European Union, no longer a simple economic and political union between the countries of Europe, becomes a single country encompassing all of Europe, stretching from the southern tip of Spain to the far east of Russia; The Asian Confederation, a nation that encompasses almost all of Asia, stretching from the borders of the middle east to the north of China; The South American Alliance, a surprise power brought about by the dissolution of the UN, encompassing all of South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean; And NATO, encompassing all of the North American continent, Greenland, Iceland, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Switzerland declares its neutrality. The African continent and Middle East are home to the majority of nations not part of an alliance or Superpower.

A new Cold War begins.

 **2054:** A new space race begins between the four Superpowers. Halfway through the year, the AC constructs the first ever base on Luna for technological study. Days later, the EU launches a 9 kilometer large, self sustaining space station capable of housing thousands of people, called ' _Ascension's Doorstep'_. NATO begins plans for a large-scale space vessel capable of travelling to Mars. Lagging behind in the space race, the SAA announces plans to build cities for its people "Below the great oceans and in the endless skies!"

 **2055:** The SAA completes construction of the underwater city, dubbed ' _New Columbia'_ 20 miles off the coast of Brazil.

Months later, NATO launches the first ever large scale spaceship, named the _NASV Into Darkness_. Within NATO territory, it is celebrated as an immense achievement; everywhere else, it is feared that NATO will use it to rain down destruction on important cities and military locations that the nations have no way of defending against. To alleviate concerns, and ensure it isn't attacked preemptively by all three of its rivals at once, NATO allows a team from Switzerland to inspect the ship to assure people it possesses no weapons.

 **2056:** The EU, SAA, and AC launch large space-worthy vessels of their own into space. While celebrated within their respected countries, it is overshadowed by the announcement by NATO that it will be making a trip to Mars with the ' _NASV Into Darkness'_ in the hopes to set up the first ever colony on another planet.

 **2063:** The NATO colony of ' _New Manchester'_ is finished, and all of Humanity celebrates it as an achievement, not just NATO. Thousands across the globe seek to immigrate to the newly built colony, but must first go through the necessary training needed to make the journey. The EU offers _'Ascension's Doorstep'_ as a place to acquire food and provide training for this trip. NATO accepts.

The SAA announces plans to build a city in the skies above 'New Columbia' _._ The AC offers to help with the project in exchange for the schematics to 'New Columbia' _._ The SAA accepts.

The Human population reaches eight and a half billion.

 **2067:** The joint SAA and AC city of ' _New Hope'_ is completed 3 months early.

NATO scientist Elizabeth Shepard discovers alien ruins beneath Promethei Planum. For nearly two weeks NATO leadership debate whether or not to reveal this to Humanity. It is ultimately decided to keep it a secret. Study of the ruins begins in secrecy under heavily armed guard. In addition, the leadership crank up military production and funding into military tech in preparation for any impending invasion.

 **2068:** NATO makes dozens of breakthroughs in all scientific fields, leaving the other Superpowers in the dust. Despite their scientists and spies best efforts, the other powers can't figure out how to replicate what NATO has done. Despite government envy and fear of NATO military build-up, public opinion of NATO rises since its efforts to eradicate disease has worked exceptionally well, finding cures to nearly 50% of those that plague Humanity.

New Manchester expands.

 **2070:** The secret of the Mars Ruins is leaked by a traitor in NATO's bureaucracy to the other nations. Outraged, the nations approach NATO in secret and offer an ultimatum: either share the knowledge in the ruins and allow them access, or face a war against all three of them. Some NATO generals think that, given their superiority over the seas and plans for weapons found in the ruins, that it would be easy to fight the other three powers. The majority however see this as something they couldn't survive, and acquiesce to their demands. Hours later, NATO announces to the world that they had just discovered the ruins on Mars before any of the others can.

This is announcement shocks the world. Many religions rush to rewrite themselves, or are outright abandoned. Extremists across the world of all religions protest this as lies meant to try and lead them astray, even ignoring eyewitness accounts that come in everyday, but nothing can stop the fact that most religions have shrunk considerably.

Despite this, none of the four Superpowers agree to form a single government for Humanity, mainly for reasons of greed, envy, and even political views. However, it was announced that should any part of Humanity come under attack from aliens that the rest of the Superpower's will rush to aid them.

 **2071:** 4 up and coming powers appear on the African continent. Each roughly on par with each other with governmental and possessing a form of unity the others don't have, each attracts the attention and support of one of the Superpowers. South Africa, having grown in size to encompass all of south Africa, as well as the southern portions of east and central Africa, is supported by the SAA; East Africa, encompassing the rest of eastern Africa, Sudan, and Madagascar is supported by the AC; Nigeria, which had grown to encompass western Africa and the rest of central Africa, supported by NATO; and North Africa, which encompasses all of northern Africa and the rest of Saharan Africa, supported by the EU.

 **2073:** Due to the rising tension between the four African nations, war breaks out. Despite being allies to the African nations, each Superpower declares their neutrality from the fighting. Despite this, 'volunteers' from each nation go to join the fighting on the side of the nations their countries support.

The African War begins, but is contained to the African continent.

 **2080:** After years of painstaking work, the teams within the ruins are able to translate more information from the alien data cache on Mars. Namely that the species that left the ruins was called 'Prothean', and the concepts of mass effect fields. Weeks after work on these mass effect fields begin, they encounter a key part of the science deep within the ruins: a mineral the ruins referred to as 'Element Zero'. When subjected to an electrical current, the mineral is capable of raising or lowering the mass of an object.

With the discovery of this element, the scientific community deduces that it could be used to produce a FTL drive. When this is corroborated by the ruins, each Superpower races to be the first to do so. Despite this though, it is noticed that there are glaring weaknesses and drawbacks ti mass effect technology. Indeed, while it is more advanced than anything Humanity has at the moment, a few concepts are either impossible with the technology, or are far more difficult than with their current tech. Ultimately, it is decided that Humanity will combine mass effect tech with their current tech.

As of now, there are dozens of super-cities beneath the ocean and floating in the skies, with most belonging to the SAA and a small portion the AC.

New Manchester's population reaches 900 million.

 **2083:** After years of work, the SAA finally manages to craft the first FTL ship of Humanity, dubbed the ' _Miracle of Science'._ To showcase this scientific achievement, the ship is able to travel to Mars and back within mere minutes. The EU and AC launch their own ships days later. It is nearly a month before NATO's own ship launches.

It has been ten years since the start of the African War, the giant proxy war between the four Superpowers. It has already claimed tens of millions of lives.

Coordinates Charon, Pluto's moon, are discovered, but it is unknown why. Expeditions to the moon after delayed to deal with issues closer to Earth.

 **2099:** After 19 years since discovering mass effect technology, the Sol system has undergone massive changes. Mars has been fully terraformed, there is a domed city on Venus, three more habitable stations have been built around Earth, small colonies have been set up on the moons of Titan and Rhea, and mining of the Kuiper Belt has been underway for years.

A meeting is held by the leaders of each Superpower. It is decided that it is finally time to head to Charon. Each had been preparing for this moment since the discovery of the ruins, and now, with a combined fleet numbering at 38 strong equipped with the most advanced technology available, they felt they were ready to head to the moon. Before that though, they needed to put an end to the African War.

And end it did, after a combination of exhaustion from the war, as well as pressure from the Superpowers. In total, 1.1 billion people were killed in the war. No significant gains were made by any of the nations, and all old borders are redrawn.

With the war resolved, the combined fleet heads toward Charon. Upon arriving, the EU ship ' _USV Spear of Winter' i_ s seemingly vaporized as what was once a moon breaks apart. In its place is a massive piece of technology shaped vaguely like a Tuning Fork. Before anyone can panic, the ' _Spear of Winter'_ sends a message back saying that they are alright, and in Arcturus, 36 light years away. The captain, Jon Grissom, reports that there is nothing on the other side and uses the structure to instantaneously travel back to Sol.

With this discovery, the four Superpowers rush to use the network of structures the ruins dub the 'Mass Relay'.

 **2121:** Humanity has expanded far and wide since the discovery of the Mass Relay. Altogether, 125 planets have been discovered and colonized, with a dozen more in the process of being terraformed, and a population of 18 billion. Technology has advanced much during this time, with more and more of the ruins, now called the Mars Archives, being deciphered every day.

Despite how far it has come however, Humanity remains as divided however. Nearly a dozen small proxy wars have broken out on the African continent on Earth, as well as a surge in pirates that target developing colonies.

Tensions has been rising between the EU, AC, and NATO for years as well, and some suspect that it will soon reach a boiling point.

 **2122:** The tension snaps as NATO ambassador Alexander Udina in Berlin, Germany, is assassinated by a nationalistic group. When the EU refuses to transfer them to NATO for the death sentence, talks break down. Hours later, the EU colony of Terra Nova is blitzed by a NATO fleet. After days of intense fighting, the planet falls and is captured by NATO. The EU demands NATO immediately leave the planet and pay substantial reparations.

NATO refuses, and the Inter-Planetary War begins. Additionally, Nigeria and North Africa declare war on one another.

Before a battle can break out above Earth, the AC and SAA fleets demand that the EU and NATO fleets withdraw from Earth space, and threaten to attack both should they refuse. Reluctantly, the two fleets jump away to their nearest colonies; Mars for NATO, Titan for the EU.

The invasions of Britain and Ireland begin.

Average human life-span reaches 102.

 **2123:** AC 2nd Fleet Admiral Li Yang seizes two worlds rich in rare minerals, or more importantly Element Zero, undergoing the terraforming process from NATO and the EU. When demands to leave the worlds to them are ignored, both nations declare war on the AC. It's fleet is then asked to leave Earth's orbit by the SAA. Despite equaling the SAA fleet in orbit, the admiral wasn't willing to risk NATO or the EU swooping in and stealing victory from them. They retreat to Venus. East Africa joins the war.

The invasions of Siberia and the Middle East. Unprepared for the strike from behind, much of Siberia is captured within the month it takes the EU to ship troops there, weakening the defenses in the west. A week after the EU troops arrive, AC troops conquer all of the Middle East with minimum casualties and march through the former nation of Greece with minimal resistance before they are stopped from marching any further. At the same time, the invasion of Japan begins as NATO and AC wet fleets clash.

The invasions of Britain and Ireland are stalled when reinforcements from Iceland and Greenland arrive ti strengthen the defense. As this happens, Estremadura of the former nation of Portugal is assaulted with a NATO force on par with that of D-Day. Expecting the NATO invasion to happen in one of the former French territories, they rush to reinforce the lines before NATO can capture too much land.

South Africa joins the war.

In space, the Inter-Planetary War has hit dozens of colonies, and it looks like none may escape the conflict.

 **2126:** The war grinds to a halt across the board. On Earth, the AC's advance into the EU has been halted in the Urais region of former Russia, and is slowly being pushed out of Bulgaria. Their invasion of Japan has been halted as well, dividing the former country in half. The EU has been completely pushed out of the former nations of Britain and Ireland, but has completely taken Iceland.

NATO has completely taken the former nations of Spain and Portugal, as well as some of southern France, but has stalled out there. It's invasion of Korea has been halted through sheer weight of numbers as well, once more dividing the Korean Peninsula.

In space, Mars has repelled multiple invasion attempts and shielded New Manchester from orbital bombardment, but has lost numbers each time. While this happened, assault teams would attempt to infiltrate the Mars Archives to capture it, only to be thwarted by the heavy defenses and quick response teams from the fleet.

Eezo worlds have quickly become graveyards for all sides. Every Admiral understands that Element Zero is a vital resource, but therein lies the problem. Each side has fought so hard to capture these planets that at this point in the war they simply attack them so the others can't have them.

The planet of Shanxi is captured by NATO forces after the general surrenders, but the NATO colony of 'Eden' is blockaded.

The SAA finds a derelict ship not of human design in the space between their colonies, dating back thousands of years.

 **2127:** Under the strain of fighting a three-way war within their territory, general Francesco Williams of the EU pulls all of his troops back to Poland, Belarus, and the Ukraine, which have remained relatively untouched throughout the war. In doing so, the AC and NATO capture all of the undefended territory and meet in the middle. As a new front is opened up in the war, the second biggest surprise of the war happens: The SAA attacks.

Unprepared for such as thing, especially NATO, SAA troops swarm through areas quickly and capture territory to demonstrate their skill. On Earth, this wins them the entirety of what was once Mexico before being stopped at the tip of Texas, as well as sets up beachheads in Florida; all territory that had yet to see any of the war. With theirs the only fleet above Earth, air superiority quickly becomes theirs, and the nations wet fleets are all destroyed within hours of each others. In response, the EU and AC each attack the fleet.

They perish but manage to do some damage to the fleet. The SAA fleet then sets out to Mars with the intention of capturing it. The NATO fleet puts up a better fight than the minuscule EU and AC fleets did, but is defeated within 3 hours. During these three hours though, the Mars Archive's had fortified and stocked themselves with enough supplies to last a siege; which was exactly what was going to happen. The SAA now holds Sol space after the fire teams sent to the stations orbiting Earth successfully capture them.

On the colonies, battles that have been waged for years have been finished as fresh troops and ships drop onto the battlefield. Despite SAA troops having less advanced tech and less experienced soldiers, they manage to take a dozen colonies and systems thanks to surprise.

The SAA colonies go dark, but it is chalked up to pirates or a retaliatory strike from the other powers.

 **2130:** During a battle over the NATO colony of Bekenstein, an Eezo refinery is accidentally hit by a stray shot and is destroyed. The attacking force is repelled, but the fleet immediately begins examining the damage caused by the refinery. Many people are exposed to the dust-form Eezo, 25% of which were mothers going through pregnancies. Later that year when the children are born, roughly 30% of them die due to cancerous growths.

3 more colonies go dark. No longer simply an SAA problem, NATO, the EU, and the AC discreetly dispatch small reconnaissance fleets to the worlds. No word is heard from them.

The AC take back Shanxi.

 **2135:** After 5 years and 4 more colonies going dark, Humanity finally has an answer to what has been causing the colonies to go dark when Shanxi is attacked. Despite AC forces expecting perhaps a vast armada of pirates, or even rouge elements attempting to start their own government, the answer is far more terrifying. The ships, which appear to be human-made vessels of each government, lend credit to the pirate theory at first. When the ships perform boarding actions however, the crews get their first glimpse at the enemy: a race of highly intelligent, hive-minded insects more akin to monsters than an intelligent species.

The AC fleet falls within hours of first contact through a combination of boarding actions and surprising tactics. The insects land on Shanxi, where the defenders send video of them to the AC. The siege of Shanxi begins.

A small number of human children exposed to Element Zero on Bekenstein exhibit minor telekinetic abilities. NATO command takes notice of this and begins watching the children.

 **2136:** The AC dispatches an assault fleet to Shanxi to liberate it. Before it can begin the journey, spies from the EU, SAA, and NATO leak the knowledge of who has been assaulting colonies to their governments. A meeting of sorts is held between the four leaders over quantum entanglement comms. In response to the violent first contact tha has resulted in each of them losing colonies, they agree to a truce until the threat is dealt with. Within days, the fighting across human space halts when each of them announce the violent first contact. Though they are all untrusting of each other, each government dispatches a single feet to Shanxi with a diplomatic vessel containing ambassadors from each in case this was all a simple misunderstanding.

As soon as the fleets arrive in system, they are attacked. The following battle results in heavy casualties for all four fleets when, instead of just the captured human ships, strange alien vessels likely made by the aliens join in the attack. Ultimately though, despite these alien vessels, the human fleets manage to route the aliens and land troops on Shanxi to begin the liberation.

What greets them is an enemy they are completely unprepared for. More akin to animals, the aliens attack viciously and with no seeming regard for their lives. Nearly a third of the liberation forces are wiped out within the initial landings. Things only get worse as the liberators encounter more dangerous types of the aliens wielding advanced weaponry and, to the horror of all involved, so kind of telekinetic abilities that decimate the forces. Moral plummets further for the troops when they witness their fellow soldiers being devoured by the hordes of aliens.

What remains of Shanxi's defense links up with the liberators and offer crucial tactical information about the alien forces.

 **2137:** After nearly a year of intense fighting, constant reinforcements, and liberal orbital bombardments, the colony of Shanxi is free of the aliens. Following the liberation, they are dubbed the Hive, after their hive mind ability.

Before any celebrations can begin, numerous other worlds are assaulted by the Hive ships. This officially begins the Human-Hive War, and puts the Inter-Planetary War on hold as people rush to combat the Hive.

After reviewing the footage from Shanxi, scientists and generals of NATO find similarities between the telekinetic abilities of the Hive and the children of Bekenstein. Deciding that it is necessary, they have the children kidnapped and fake their deaths. Human research into Biotics begins.

 **2140:** Medi-Gel is created and distributed throughout Human forces.

Numerous worlds have fallen to the Hive's relentless assault, and capturing their soldiers offers nothing since they communicate in two different ways. Despite numerous advances in technology, Human soldiers can't match the ruthlessness or numbers of the Hive. Following footage and eyewitness accounts of the Hive's capabilities, recruitment skyrockets.

Following the testing of the children with telekinetic abilities, the scientists determine that an amp of some sorts would be required for the newly dubbed Biotics to be viable in the field.

 **2145:** Following the need for their guns to be more powerful and fix the cool down problem, the Thermal Clip is invented. Despite many saying it is a step backward in terms of weapons-tech, they quiet down when the guns equipped with Thermal Clips are capable of taking down the Hive more quickly than before.

The AC push the Hive off of Jilin with the help of their new robot, the Sparks. Equipped with the most powerful armor and kinetic barriers available, these robots prove immensely helpful in clearing out the Hive. This version, roughly humanoid in shape with weapons for arms, is said to be a prototype. The development of more powerful versions is underway.

The training of the biotic children is almost complete. It is theorized that in roughly 5 more years, they will be ready to take the field after they go through weapons training and complete the final stages of biotic training.

 **2149:** The Hive is repelled from every Human world thanks to the mass use of Spark robots, orbital bombardments, and Incendiary ammo capable of burning through Hive armor. The casualties are still staggering though, as every world liberated costs incalculable numbers. In space, the Hive and Human ships are roughly on par with one another, but due to the allowed use of nuclear weapons, they manage to push them back to 'their' territory; the planets they've held the longest.

 **2150:** Human fleets begin the assault of Hive worlds. Each planet is heavily defended by masses of ships and soldiers that some think of them as fortress worlds. However, through the recent NATO invention of Hercules armor, an armor capable of withstanding much more kinetic damage than previous armors, they are capable of making landfall on all of the planets. On the surface, all that remains of the former Human colonies are ghost cities void of any life. Tunnels are then found leading into the crust of the planet. Despite knowing the sending troops down into the tunnels will result in countless losses without armor or air support, the armies are marched down.

What follows is a nearly year long assault on each fleet using hundreds of millions of soldiers, seemingly endless amounts of Sparks, and increasing amounts of incendiary bombs. None of this however manages to completely turn the tide of battle in Humanity's favor, only gradually pushing back the hordes of Hive soldiers and brood warriors.

It is then that NATO sends down their teams of Biotic soldiers. The abilities of these Humans surprise not only their human counterparts, but the Hive as well. Before they can adapt to the new soldiers with their own, these Biotic artillery units manage to create holes in the Hive defense and allow the rest of the military to push deeper into the Hive nest. It is there in the final chambers that they encounter the Queens, giant versions of the Hive soldiers that were responsible for leading the Hive. Once spotted, on every planet under assault, they were opened fire on with every Humanity had: Biotics, missiles, grenades, regular ammunition, even rocks when Thermal Clips ran out.

With the Queens dead, the surviving forces pull out of the tunnel and collect their dead. It is during this that the SAA leaders reveal something to the others; that they were the reason the Hive attacked them. They had discovered a derelict ship on the outskirts of their space, and brought it back for study. When they searched it, they found eggs inside of the ship, and brought them back to a colony for study. It was then, during that process, that the Hive managed to escape and kill the scientists, then take over the colony, and capture the ships, before heading out to other colonies. The intact shipyards revealed that they had been using them to build their ships as well.

They then reveal that there is likely one more queen on that original world, a toxic world that had been used mainly for scientific study. Despite their outrage, they agree to send everything they have to this final world and equip their soldiers with the most environmentally sealed suits they can afford to make.

 **2151:** The fleets arrive at the Hive-held world. They immediately engage the small Hive force guarding the world and send troops down to the planet. Thanks to their sealed suits, they are capable of surviving on the world and engaging the Hive... for a few days before they are forced to retreat back into space because of the hostile world. Despite their best efforts and constantly sending down troops to assault the Hive, they can't breach deep enough into the tunnels. Seeing that there is no real chance of defeating the Hive on this world, some bring up the idea of quarantine. Others debate this and say that with enough Sparks, they could purge the Hive for good. The debate between quarantine and extinction rages for months as ships are held above the planet. Ultimately, extinction wins out, but not in the way some would think.

An EU scientist approaches the debating leaders and offers up a plan; a plan that would result in no lives lost, and required the use of only one bomb. Intrigued, the leaders listen to what the scientist suggests. They are then horrified when he suggests a planet-cracker bomb, something capable of burrowing deep into the planet and exploding with enough force to decimate a continent the size of Eurasia. After intense debate and much deliberation, they put it to a vote and the bomb is narrowly allowed to be used.

On December 30th, the bomb is finally finished and is transported to the Hive planet. It is then dropped onto the planet and all of the ships pull back in case anything goes wrong. Minutes after dropping the bomb, they all immediately notice the affects of it. More specifically, an entire section of the planet is obliterated and turned into space rubble after a glorious explosion. In the end, the planet broke apart into multiple pieces, and the largest part, it's molten core, spilled out into space.

Despite this, the planet-cracker is labeled a success in exterminating the Hive, and thus ends the Human-Hive War.

The scientists who created the bomb disappears soon after the affects of the bomb are announced.

Following the end of the war, the four governments meet in Washington D.C to officially end the Inter-Planetary War. Despite the fact that it has unofficially been over since the Hive attacked Shanxi, it is a breath of fresh air for Humanity. Following this and the return of all former territory of each government, they begin talks of all merging into one government to combat any other alien threats that may come.

 **2152:** The United Human Empire is officially formed. All across human space there are celebrations as Humanity finally united under one banner. Despite this celebration though, many call for aid across human space as a result of the Inter-Planetary War and Human-Hive War. This begins the long process of rebuilding for humanity. Plans for a UHE headquarters in Arcturus are drawn up.

 **2162** : Arcturus Station is completed.

 **2222:** Humanity has finally recovered from the wars of its past. Every planet has rebuilt from the scars of the war, the people have forgiven each other for the most part, and their technology has increased since the wars. Now, the average human life span has reach 180 years, disease is virtually nonexistent, and their military has even exceeded that of the pre-war numbers of each former government combined. While some are worried about the military's size, most are cautiously supportive of it in fear of another alien species attack, or worse, a Hive resurgence. The Hive has been used by the government to justify many things, but none can say that those things haven't improved thing across human space.

None have seen this more than the worlds assaulted by the Hive. Once worlds looked at with horror, they are now sprawling colonies home to millions of lives. Shanxi in particular has shown that despite all of the hardship it has faced over its life time, it can bounce back. Indeed, it is a spot visited by many tourists, and is a growing colony world many hope to build homes on.

Recently, a science and recon team has been sent to the dormant Mass Relay in the system in hopes of finding more planets behind it.

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 **Authors Note: So...? What'd you think? Was it too long, anything I should change? Would the actual story be worth reading with this background? Let me know in the reviews, and I'm so sorry for the length of the timeline.**

 **Bye! And don't forget to favorite, follow, and review!**


	2. Unfortunate Contact

**Authors Note: Sup guys, I'm back! Wow, this is my second most loved story to date; and this is only the second chapter! I don't know whether to be happy that I've finally written something so loved, or depressed everything else isn't... I'll go with the former.**

 **Before this begins, I wanna thank everyone who reviewed! They were really great, and I'm glad this has received positive reception. I have a pathological need ti receive reviews, whether they're praising, constructive criticisms, or even flames. I like them because they let me know what I'm doing right, and what I should change. So if it feels like my writing is lacking or you have some tips, I'd love to hear them.**

 **Oh, and before we get on with this, I just wanna make one thing clear: this is NOT a HFY! story. The Humans will have challenges to face, they will get knocked down, aliens will gain victory, and stereotypes will be broken. In other words, all species will be given the chance to be awesome and have the spotlight, not just Humanity or the Council races. With that said, on with the story!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own Mass Effect. It belongs to Bioware.**

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Space. The endless frontier. Within this frontier, there lie endless possibilities. On one planet, a species of gaseous life-forms are evolving; on another, a species is meeting its end at the hands of nuclear weapons or disease. Some species make peaceful first contact and are accepted into a galactic community of welcoming neighbors. Other times, it's all-out war between two species because of a mistake or misunderstanding.

All that connects these species is the choices they make. Their choices have long lasting consequences not just for their species, but others as well. A choice made hundreds, or even thousands of years ago, can affect millions of people in ways they could never imagine.

One such choice was about to be made; one that would affect the fate of the entire galaxy.

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 **Turian Patrol Fleet, Cruiser ' _Honor Redeemed',_ Approaching Dormant Relay 314**

Captain Quimius Procmius was not what many would call a 'good Turian'. He'd always valued lives over orders, common sense to blind devotion; not traits that a good Turian was supposed to have. Born into no clan, born barefaced, he was an outcast to most of Turian society. Everyone but his men regarded him with mistrust, expecting dissecting his every word for a hint of deception; nothing he did was ever taken at face value.

His father had been exiled from the clan he'd been a part of, a minor one that dedicated their entire lives to military service. Quimius had investigated the why and hadn't truthfully been surprised to find his father had helped smuggle drugs into Hierarchy space; drugs that would kill a Primarch's son, no less.

His father had found sanctuary among the other exiles and outcasts on a far-off colony on the edges of Hierarchy space. As was custom among exiles, he had removed his clan markings and was only allowed to fond mates among other exiles. From that union, he had been born. An exile of no choice of his own, untrusted because of centuries of old tradition, he'd learned early on that life wasn't kind to those who couldn't work for what they wanted.

Among the other exiles he was treated with a modicum of respect since they were all each other had. But he'd wanted to be more than an exile who'd never get to see the galaxy, and had volunteered for military service at 14 years old. The Commander at the time had seen this as an... admirable show of dedication to the Hierarchy, and allowed him onto the ship to monitor comms.

Of course, just because he'd been allowed the 'honor' of doing that, didn't mean he could work at the same level as other Turian's. He'd had to work twice as hard, receive better results than those decades his senior, and be twice as honorable a Turian as his comrades just to be accepted as an equal. It had worked for a few years; he'd even managed to become the XO on a ship at one point. Then the Quashim Incident had happened.

His captain at the time wanted to sacrifice the colony, a colony that had an abundance of Asari and Salarian tourists, below to fully route the pirates at the time. His captain had been an arrogant fool interested only in ascending the meritocracy via valor in combat. He'd taken offense to the order and been ordered to stand down.

He'd refused, and gunned the Turian down; the crew had agreed with him, and hadn't tried to throw him in the brig after the fact. He was then the highest ranked officer on board, and since the crew at the time had agreed with him, they'd followed his orders to protect the colony. They'd done just that, but at the cost of many Turian lives and giving the pirates the chance to escape.

In the aftermath, he bad his entire crew were to face the consequences when politics had saved his life. Apparently, to the colonists and tourists on the world at the time, he was a hero; apparently, a hero couldn't be executed or discharged from the military.

Instead of that, he and the crew were given the 'honor' of patrolling the edges civilized space to keep pirates and slavers from attacking anymore colonies. They'd even put him in charge of a small fleet to 'help' him. He'd have to be blind and deaf to miss the fact that his every move was silently questioned, and that many of the ships within the fleet wanted him to fail.

Unfortunately for them, he'd performed his duties better than any had expected him to. His patrol fleet had thwarted more raiding attempts and found more hidden bases than any of the other fleets combined. Ever since then, he and the ' _Honor Redeemed'_ had earned a reputation among pirates and slavers as a force to be reckoned with.

Of course, he knew that the captain of this small patrol fleet would be all he would ever get. If he'd been willing to compromise his morals, act like a 'good Turian' then he was certain that he'd be capable of ascending higher; after all, a few respected Admirals were former bare-faces.

But he wasn't, and so he was content with his position in the Hierarchy.

Of course, just because he was content, didn't mean he didn't get bored. Patrols like this were usually void of anything interesting. After all, while hack writers may use pirates opening dormant relays as the start of a horror book, real life wasn't nearly as exciting. No pirate, regardless of race, gender, or age was stupid enough to open a dormant relay.

"I'm so bored." Quimius turned to his communications officer and regarded him for a moment. He was a recruit, barely 18 years old most likely since his plates still looked a little loose.

"I take it this isn't what you were expecting when you were conscripted?" Quimius asked.

The boy shook his head. "No sir. I expected this to all be a bit more... exciting."

Quimius chuckled. "That's good. Bored means that you're safe, alive, and that you've done your job in keeping the galaxy safe." He told the young comms officer. "Military service isn't all head-butting Krogan and repelling pirate forces; sometimes it's as simple as patrolling the dead sectors of space."

The comms officer nodded. "Yes sir. I'll keep that in mind."

Quimius sighted and closed his eyes. The boy wouldn't understand now since he was so young, but later, when he'd experienced a battle or two, then he'd understand what he meant. Until then, he'd have to grow used to the boredom of a simple patrol-

"Sir! We've detected an anomaly!" That caught his attention. Turning to the sensors personnel, he gestured for the to continue. "4 ships have established a connection with the relay... sir, Relay 314 is active now."

Quimius's first instinct was to have the ships receive a full salvo from his fleet. Before he could make the order though, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Taking a moment to collect himself, he turned towards the screen to get a better look at the ships.

They were... like nothing he'd ever seen, quite literally. They were big and blocky, unlike the Asari's smooth surfaces and more akin to a Turian ship. Unlike a Turian ship though, this had no wings and resembled an arrow about as much as a ship could, with powerful engines in the back and a narrow body. He could make out a spinal mounted canon along the center of the ship, but he had no way of telling how powerful it was.

"Weapons are primed and ready to fire on your order." One of the men on deck said.

"Hold a moment." Quimius said. "Did you check council databases for ship designs? Even those of the minor species?"

The man was confused but nodded. "Yes sir; it doesn't match any known ship design of Citadel space. We assumed it was a pirate ship or Terminus species."

"Did you check to make sure?" A moment of silence followed as scans were done of the ships.

"Those ships don't match any known Terminus ships either sir."

Quimius nodded. "That settles it then. This is First Contact with a new species. Prep the first contact package."

"Come again sir?" The boy from before questioned.

He understood why. Most Turian's, regardless of what they thought, held their duty to Citadel law very seriously. Any other in his situation likely would have fired on the ships to teach them the laws they had no knowledge of, then moved to pacify the home world, or the colony behind the relay if they were advanced enough. He, on the other hand, noticed that the ships had been sitting there for minutes and hadn't made any hostile moves toward them. He wouldn't respond to non-hostility with violence.

"You said it yourself, those ships don't match any in our extensive database. Given that anyone with even a modicum of common sense in the galaxy knows the dangers of opening a dormant Mass Relay, and these ships lack of reaction to us, I think it's safe to assume they come from behind 314."

"They've sent us their own first contact package sir."

Quimius nodded. "Good. Open it and send our own-" He was interrupted as he saw a bright flash of light out of the corner of his eye. Surprised, he turned just in time to see the smallest vessel in the middle of the aliens' formation explode in a violent flash of light.

Before he could even process what happened, another of the aliens' ships was hit, but it seemed this one had kinetic barriers since it didn't explode in a single hit. The aliens seemed to get over their surprise faster than he could, and the three frigate-size vessels opened fire on his fleet.

As soon as they did that, the rest of his fleet- all 30 frigates and 8 cruisers - fired on them before he could put a stop to it.

The entire slaughter, for that was what it was, was over within a few minutes. Only a single ship had survived, and there were holes deep enough in it that Quimius could see clear to the other side. Before anyone could finish it off, it jumped away through the Relay back to wherever it came from.

For a moment, Quimius was silent. Then he snarled, "Who fired the first shot?"

"Captain Cantas Masdas of the ' _Heroic Talon'_ sir!"

"Get him on the comms, now!" His crew rushed to follow his orders. He was known as a usually level-headed Turian, but his crew knew what happened when he was angry; the one responsible for doing it suffered the consequences.

"Captain Procmius! Sir, what can I do for you?"

Quimius growled. The bastard didn't even have the decency to sound guilty about the fact he'd just slaughtered thousands of aliens. "What can you do for me? You can start by explaining why you opened fire when I didn't give any order to do so!"

The anger in his voice seemed to surprise his fellow captain. "Sir, those aliens were breaking Citadel law. I had to teach them a lesson about why you don't open dormant relays."

"Those aliens don't know about Citadel law you fool!" His voice was just below a shout and he gripped the railing hard enough to hurt his hands. "Put your XO on the line."

"Sir-"

"Put him on!"

After a few moments, a young female Turian appeared on screen. "Sir? You asked for me?"

"Yes, I did. What is your name?"

"Lubivia Patroma, sir. Why?"

"Lubivia Patroma, I am hereby ordering you and the rest of the crew to place former-captain Masdas under arrest and place him in the brig until we can reach Hierarchy space so he may be given a trial."

The XO was shoved out of the way as the former captain appeared on screen. "What!? Why!?"

"Because you just destroyed three ships of an encountered species; one that may be just as dangerous as the Rachni or Krogan were. And you, which by extension means the Hierarchy, just declared on them."

"But-but I was just doing as any good Turian would!" He didn't get to say anymore as the other Turian's on the deck behind began dragging him away. Quimius shut off the link before he could see anymore.

"Should we follow the aliens through the relay sir?"

Quimius sighed. "No... no, this is above our pay grade. We need to alert the Hierarchy and pray to the Spirits." He gazed at the now active relay, and the rubble now floating in front of it.

"Let us hope that we haven't unleashed something on the galaxy that could end us all."

* * *

 **Shanxi, Capital City**

"Here's to us, the most baddass group of soldiers this side of the galaxy!" The bar was filled with shouts as everyone raised their mugs in agreement.

Anderson snorted and shook his head in amusement at his fellow N7's announcement. He'd hardly call them the 'most badass group of soldiers this side of the galaxy', all things considering. They'd only just finished N7 training after all, which was a huge achievement. Still, he was also certain that those old vets who were still in service from the Human-Hive War could beat them handily.

One of his fellow graduates seemed to see Anderson's amusement and grinned devilishly. "And here's to Anderson, the man who led us to victory over those pirates on Pax Sigma!" The few men and women around him cheered in agreement.

Anderson chuckled. "I can't take all the credit. Vera managed to keep our Barriers up long enough to get past the turrets."

"As if I'd let a few measly pirates break MY Barriers." Vera scoffed. "I'm offended you'd even hint that my barriers could be broken by them. I'm the strongest Human biotic for a reason you know."

Anderson chuckled at his Russian friends' pride. Despite the arrogance someone who didn't know her would assume, her statement was accurate. Anyone who'd seen her in action could attest to her strength; especially once they saw her swat aside a Mako and still manage to spam her biotics against entire teams of pirates.

"Maybe so, but I hadn't taken out that sniper I don't think you'd have had enough energy in you give yourself a Barrier, let alone all of us."

Vera rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah Li, we know. You're the best shot in the galaxy, yadda yadda yadda."

Li smirked and leaned back. "Well, the next time you're capable of firing a Harpoon sniper with one hand while hanging upside down with a shrapnel wound in your gut, you let me know. I'll happily start calling you the best shot in the galaxy."

The man who started all this laughed to himself and shook his head. "That was just a pirate base that had managed to give the marines a bit of trouble. Now that we've completed the final phase of our training, we'll be sent to places that would kill anyone else."

"Not all of us are as eager to face constant life or death situations, you know, Heath." Li stated. "Some of us want to relax and relish the fact that we're alive in a place where there's no chance of us being attack by anything... good god I suddenly feel like I've made a terrible mistake saying that."

Heath chuckled and slapped her on the back with enough force that she stumbled forward. "Come on, this Shanxi; arguably the most dangerous colony that Humanity has; who or what would be dumb enough to attack this place?"

* * *

 **Shanxi-Theta Mass Relay, ' _ESV Beijing'_**

All around him, captain Xinjiang Wong could smell the blood of his crew man and the smoke from the terminal fires; he could hear the groans and pained gasps of his crew as they struggled to stay awake, and stay alive.

Forcing his eyes open, he was greeted by the sight of his yeoman, Jaclyn Heart, dead at the foot of her console. She'd been with him for years, they'd been honored to serve together against pirates, vented to each other about the idiocy of the brass, and talked to each other about family problems. She'd told him how she wanted to settle down and start a family on Earth when her tour of duty was over.

And now she was dead, killed because of some trigger-happy alien. And to think, hours ago everything had been so peaceful, so hopeful about what they'd find behind the relay; perhaps a new Garden world for the UHE to claim as its own, or another cache of Prothean technology. Instead, all they'd found was death and destruction.

Searing the image of his friends' corpse, of his fellow captains were atomized in their ships, of the defenseless and naïve scientists who foolishly decided to stay when they should have fled the moment the alien fleet arrived in the system - and paying the price in blood for that decision.

Grabbing the railings of the CIC, he forced himself to his feet and looked to see who else was on their feet. A few others were up: the pilot, his XO, a couple crewmen, and a navigations officer. Everyone else was either dead, or close to it. Even those who were up looked worse for wear.

"Sir, you're bleed! Are you alright?" His XO rushed to his side and helped him down from the CIC. He was about to say he didn't need any help, when he winced audibly in pain and looked down. His uniform, once a pristine white, was now stained red with his blood.

"We need to get you down to the med bay sir. You've lost a lot of blood." His XO responded as he tried calling the elevator. There was no response from the shaft besides the keypad, usually blue in color, shifting to red. He slammed a fist into the wall. "Damn it!"

"Stop, it's alright. What are the damages? How many people have we lost?" Xinjiang wanted- no, he NEEDED to know how many he'd lost to the aliens.

His XO hesitated for a moment, before bringing up his Omni-Tool. "Engineering is gone, sir. Everyone down there is dead after we used the relay in our damaged state. The hangar's collapsed and we've got people trapped down there in need of medical attention. Decks 1-6 are completely gone, thanks to the courtesy of the giant holes in our side that sucked the oxygen out before we could seal them off. Only deck 7 is still intact, for the most part, so the med bay is doing everything it can for our wounded." He paused and lowered his arm. "We've lost 85% of our crew sir, and this ship is useful for little more than scrap at this point."

The words washed over him and a sinking feeling settled in his gut, but Xinjiang schooled his features and nodded. "When will the UHE forces in the system arrive to help us?"

"A few hours, sir. Once they do, we'll be hauled to the dockyard above the planet, and everyone on-board will be sent down to Sacred Heart hospital on the planet to get our wounds treated. Afterwards, those of us who are capable of doing so are to report to General Williams on the planet below to give our assessment of the threat." His XO paused and, for the first time since this whole thing had started, he looked to him in worry. "What do we tell them sir?"

"It's simple: we tell them the truth. We tell them that another race of genocidal bastards has unjustly attacked us, killed innocent civilians, and plan on coming here to do the exact same thing." Xinjiang gazed out at the garden world, the world that had already endured so much hardship in its lifetime, the world that would be the battlefield of yet another violent war, and sighed.

"We tell them that we need to prepare for war."

* * *

 **Palaven, Hierarchy High Command**

Those who said that Turian's were incapable of playing the game of politics with anything other than a gun didn't understand Turian's. Turian society was steeped in politics with the clans, with friendships, alliances, even rivalries dating back millennia. It was nothing overt, not usually anyway; it mostly revolved around their body-language, the octave of their voices, even how seriously a spar was taken. The most overt showing of Turian politics however, was when the Primarch's met to discuss matters of state.

The Primarch's of the Turian Hierarchy met twice every standard galactic year, once at the beginning to discuss the upcoming plans for the Hierarchy and Turian people, and once at the end to see the results of those plans and determine what should be done next. Only things of such import that they could drastically affect Turian lives would meetings be held ahead of these scheduled times, and doing so for anything short of galaxy changing was akin to political suicide. Whenever these impromptu meetings are called however, every Primarch of every world, from the High Primarch of Palaven to the Primarchs from the outer colonies attends, no exceptions. Not only that, but the best Generals and Admirals at the Hierarchy's disposal were in attendance as well.

It was such an important event that the captain's nervousness over the QEC went ignored by the those present; it just made it clear that he had something he thought was important enough to warrant this meeting.

"Captain Procmius, you may begin."

The captain nodded. "Thank you, sirs." He paused for a moment and took a deep breath to dispel any nervousness that remained. "I was on my routine patrol of relay 314, as I am required to do every 6 galactic standard months, when I was alerted to an anomaly at the relay; it was active."

"Active? How is that possible!?" The Primarch of Invictus shouted. Primarch Fedorian knew him well; the two of them had served together in the 19th Platoon diligently, fought against the hordes of Blood Pack that would assault Turian colonies with barely-hidden Batarian Hegemony-funded slavers; during that entire time, he had not once seen him truly lose himself in anger or worry.

"I think the better question is who would be stupid enough to do so?" Fedorian stated. "Do you have any idea who may have done it?"

Fedorian saw the flash of regret in the captain's eyes. "Yes sir... it was a new species, one that came from behind the relay..."

Fedorian closed his eyes in thought. "You're certain of this?"

"Yes sir. I had my ships examine the wreckage for any bodies we could find."

"Wreckage? What do you mean 'wreckage'?" General Desolas Arterius interjected.

The captain flinched and started wringing his hands together; a common tell that a Turian felt guilty of something.

"One of my fellow captains in the patrol fleet decided to open fire on the aliens for breaking Citadel law when they activated the relay; a law that they had no possible way of knowing. After they had attempted peaceful contact." Procmius sighed. "I have ordered the XO and crew of his ship to place him in the brig until he can face justice."

That certainly got a reaction from many of the Primarch's, himself included. He could still remember when he'd heard about the Quashim Incident. At first, he'd been overjoyed that his people had acted so admirably in defense of the colony that he'd personally wanted to shake the hand of the captain who'd taken charge. Then he'd learned that 'captain' at the time of the attack had killed his CO to take command. Regardless of the results, he and many others felt that he and the crew that had supported him needed to be punished for killing an officer, and not putting the man who killed that officer in the brig. Respectively of course.

But, of course, the bare-faced Turian's name had reached the Asari and Salarian's, and it'd only gone downhill from there. He was a hero in the eyes of their allies, and even some Turian fighters on the planet, and any of the typical actions would have caused major political backlash. So, Fedorian had suggested the only thing he could: patrol duty.

It was unanimously agreed upon.

And after what he was just told? He was glad he'd decided to do that instead of having him executed or discharged. He'd thought with his head instead of his guns; a trait rare among the Turian race, and one he'd done his best to foster among his brothers and sisters.

"Have you moved to pacify this species?"

The captain shook his head. "No sir. I've had my ships remain in position outside the relay to prevent anyone from entering or leaving."

Fedorian nodded. "Alright; I'll alert Councilor Calatius and he'll inform the Asari of a new species in the galaxy. Maintain your position for now, and in a few days' time the diplomats will reach your location-"

"Hold just a moment, Primarch Fedorian!" The shout drew their attention across the chambers to the Primarch of Taetrus.

"Yes, Primarch Fauscius?" His irritation at being interrupted was obvious with the higher octaves of his voice. The hint that he was annoyed was enough to prompt the lesser Primarch to continue quickly.

"Recently, I've had some of my researchers combing through the Menae Archives searching for any caches of Prothean technology that we may have missed on worlds we'd already colonized, or on worlds that hadn't been cross-checked with the Archives. We found that none of our planets had any new caches of tech, but it also told us of a few systems behind Mass Relays yet to be opened." The Primarch paused. "314 was one such relay."

"What is your point? It is likely the cache the Prothean's left for this species on their home world." The Primarch of Invictus asked.

"My point is that if we were to, say, conquer this new species and absorb them into the Hierarchy, we would have access to this cache of tech."

"Fauscius, do you understand what you're suggesting?" Fedorian cast his hand towards Procmius. "The captain informed us that this species attempted to initiate a peaceful contact with us; when the galaxy learns of that, how do you think they will react to us conquering them?"

The Primarch in question raised his hands to placate him. "I understand completely the consequences. But I also understand the benefits that the Hierarchy could reap. Think about it," He implored, "every species has brought ground-breaking technology from their Archives upon discovery. The Asari brought their Kinetic Barriers; the Salarian's the Omni-Tool; the Volus brought Food Synthesizers for Levo, Dextro, and Ammonia-based species; and we brought schematics for Biotic Amps far ahead of anything the Asari had, things that we didn't bother to build because we hadn't discovered them yet. This new species could have anything in their cache left for them, from new weapons designs to a miracle medicine that cures any ailment."

"If we had access to that, we could control that technology, and use it to bolster the Turian economy, not just the military." He continued. "Primarch Fedorian, after saying all of this, I request that we send a pacification fleet behind 314 to covertly conquer this species and secure the data cache."

This was not as easy a choice as Fedorian would have liked. On one hand, what he was being asked to do was a crime that we lower his species to the same heights as that of the Batarians. Countless Turian's would die, countless more of this new species would die to defend their world, and would likely forever view his species in the same vein the rest of the galaxy viewed the Rachni; something to be hated and feared. Not only that, but if the Council ever got wind of this, the political backlash would be enormous. As it stands most species view his people as little more than war-mongering conquerors, and that would only get worse if they found out they'd conquered a species after they'd attempted peaceful contact.

On the other hand, though, this may be just what his species needed. Despite the fact the Turian's were a council race, and the best military in the galaxy, their economy had tanked in recent decades to the point they'd had to increase the already large debt they were in with the Republics and Union. It was only made worse when the Volus were trying to separate from them and bring any credits with them; something he was certain that the STG was doing its best to facilitate. A new species, one with new technology that could majorly affect the galaxy, could be just what his people needed to get back on equal footing with the Asari and Salarians.

But was it worth the risk?

After a moment of thought, he turned towards Procmius. "How advanced were these aliens?"

"I couldn't truthfully tell you sir; they had three ships, while I had thirty-eight. Only a single ship survived, albeit with breaches throughout its hull, and it fled soon after. I can't tell you if it's kinetic barriers are so advanced it can withstand so many shots, or if its armor is thick enough, but either way, their ships can take a lot of damage. Still, if their home world is on the other side, then that ship must be one of the only ones they have left."

Fedorian nodded. "Understood; thank you for your report, and for telling us of this. General Desolas, you shall oversee the attack. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" The general responded curtly, saluting with practiced efficiency.

"Should we inform the Councilor of this then, sir?"

He shook his head. "No, not yet at least. Our Councilor would likely tell the others of what we plan to do, given his proclivity for diplomacy with the other races. We shall still tell him," he assured them when he saw a few uncertain looks in the eyes of his fellow Primarch's, "I personally shall tell him once Desolas and his fleet are in the aliens' system."

Everyone nodded and stood to leave as Procmius logged off. As everyone began to file out of the room, Fedorian raised his Omni-Tool and began making the transfers. His fingers paused just above it, poised to make the order. Thinking it over, he could imagine the many possibilities that awaited them behind the relay; an already broken species that would offer no resistance in space and be easily beaten on the ground; a species on par with the Turian's before the Asari had found them, where the race was willing to fight to the death before it surrendered; or, the more worrying prospect, a threat on par with the Rachni that he'd authorized the conquest of.

 _'I might regret this, but it's better to be safe than sorry when dealing with the unknown.'_ He thought to himself as he added one more thing to the list of forces being sent.

* * *

 **Shanxi, Empire Command Center**

"And you're certain of this?"

"Yes, general Williams. The aliens attacked us without provocation, and I'm certain that they will be coming to conquer Shanxi." Captain Xinjiang informed him.

General Williams sighed. "Alright. Thank you for informing me of this threat. Go get some rest; I doubt there will be much time for that in the coming days."

Xinjiang nodded, saluted, and stalked out the door. As it slid shut behind him, General Stephen Williams held his head in his hands and sighed.

"Something wrong, general?" His aide, a blonde woman he knew came from Earth, asked.

"I'm just wondering how bad my luck is to be posted on the planet that the first real battle between us and another species will take place on." He stood and walked over to his window in the office. "Everything I do will be looked at with a critical eye, my every action picked apart for flaws; if I lose here, I'll be a failure. From what the captain just told me, I've no idea what to expect. Unknowns aren't good in war time."

"Well, I think you need to have a little bit of hope. If you win this, you'll go down in history as a legend. Besides, I think the odds are stacked in your favor sir." The woman responded as she walked next to him. "This is Shanxi. This colony faced so much hardship, so much conflict during the Inter-Planetary War that they know how to deal with it; they were the reason we were even aware of the Hive in the first place, and their soldiers were some of the deadliest in the entire Human-Hive War. The only planet the aliens could have chosen that would be worse to attack would be Earth itself."

He sighed regardless. "Maybe so, but I've lived here for years. If I fail, if the aliens manage to conquer or kill us all, then I won't just have failed as a general, I'll have failed as a resident of Shanxi."

The woman blinked. "Sir?"

"Look at the city below us and tell me what you see."

After nearly a minute of silence, the woman spoke up. "I see a city like one I'd find on Earth, sir. I see people going about their lives without a care in the world, children going to school, skycars flying through the sky as people rush to their jobs, I can even see the soldiers training."

General Williams smiled. "When I look at this city, I see a place of hope. Despite all the tragedy these people have gone through, they've managed to rebuild their colony and make it something so great that everyone is rushing to live, or at least visit here. It's why I'm so worried about failing these people; after living here for so long, I can see how great they and this colony are."

He turned to her and nodded to her. "Tell me, what forces do we have on hand?"

The woman raised her Omni-Tool. "We have exactly 1 troop division of Empire marines, medical support staff, combat engineers, maintenance, and military police; two armor divisions of Mako Mk. 3 tanks; an air division of Hornet gunships and Kodiak dropships; 2,000 Mk. 1 Spark-class combat robots; 4,000 Mk. 2 Spark-class combat robots; 1 Biotic division; a few teams of N7 here on shore leave; and the Shanxi militia." The woman paused and tallied it all up in her head for a moment. "All together, we have a few hundred thousand combat worthy troops, a few thousand militiamen to bolster our numbers, and 6,000 combat robots. More than enough to defend the colony until the Empire can send reinforcements."

Williams sighed. "Perhaps; if I know the Empire, then they will consolidate their forces in the rest of our space before they send reinforcements here. It shouldn't take long, no more than a few days, two weeks at the most, before they come in force. Still, if these aliens are anything like us, they will bring millions of soldiers to conquer us. And if they're like the Hive? The reinforcements may come too late."

"We'll survive sir; you'll make sure of that." With nothing left to say, she turned and left his office to go fulfill her duties.

"I hope you're right." He mumbled as he approached the QEC, preparing to alert the Empire.

* * *

 ** **Authors Note: So what'd you guys think? Is it any good, anything I should change or fix? Let me know in the reviews please, and give me your thoughts on the chapter as well so I can get a general feel for where your heads are at.****

 ** **Oh, and before I forget, do you think I should add Codex Entries at the bottom of the chapter or leave things to your imagination aside from the descriptions in the story? Let me know what you think I should do.****

 ** **Anyway, don't forget to favorite, follow, review, and share with your friends. Bye!****


	3. The Siege Begins

**Authors Note: Hellow people, I'm back! How've you all been? Sorry for being a little late, but this was harder to write than I thought. This is the first time I've ever written a space battle, so if you've got any tips for improvement, let me know. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Mass Effect belongs to Bioware.**

* * *

 **Turian Ninth Fleet, Dreadnought ' _Honor in Vigilance',_ Orbiting Relay 314**

When the Turian Hierarchy mobilized for war, there was no hiding it. Unlike the Salarian's, who's concept of war was to send in teams of STG to sabotage the enemy; nor the Asari, who preferred carefully crafted ship formations that had no weaknesses and Commando teams with centuries of active military experience; the Turian's instead believed in one rule that dictated their entire war-time philosophy: Use a crippling amount of force through ships to disorientate the opponent, then metaphorically rip off its legs by sending down the armies to secure the planet, burn the food, and shoot any combatant found. It was this mindset that usually made them predictable, in a sense.

However, while some thought that the Turian's had no concept of 'limited force', they displayed it all the time. Truthfully, they had two states of war; The Long War and The Annihilation War.

The Long War was what the galaxy knew of; full force brought to bear, complete militarization, the complete takeover of planets, and the death of all active combatants. Too most species, they saw this as excessive, especially when dealing with rebellions or another species' army. One thing Asari in particular found horrifying was their view on civilians, or rather lack-there-of. When looked at from a Turian perspective, it made sense; after all, when your entire race was essentially an army, there was no such thing as a 'non-combatant'. They didn't even have a word for it until they'd met the Asari. Of course, that didn't mean they went out of their way to hunt down civilians to kill. To do so would be an act of genocide, no question about that, and would be detrimental to the Turian species if that stance was taken with rebellions.

The other, the one the galaxy at large had no idea of, was one drawn-up upon discovery of the Prothean ruins on Menae. This state of war allowed the Turian's to ignore their sense of honor, their morals, and anything that made them qualified as a civilized species: It made the use of war crimes standard protocol. In this proposed state of war, WMD's of all scales were to be freely used, restrictions on Garden Worlds were withdrawn, the entire species was conscripted into armed service with the age lowered to ten years of age, and civilians truly were hunted down to the last. This state of war was only known to the Primarch's and the Hierarchy's most trusted members for fear it could be leaked to the public. This was intended to only be used when the only available option was the extermination of the enemy.

This state of war had almost been declared during the Krogan Rebellions, the only effective counter the leaders of the Hierarchy could find at the time to Krogan ruthlessness and brutality, when the Salarian's created Genophage. When given a choice between exterminating or neutering the Krogan, the leadership had seen only one option really.

The only reason General Desolas even knew of this was because he was one of the honored few that were trusted enough to know.

Truthfully, he didn't even know why he was thinking of the Hierarchy's states of war. This mission wasn't even a truly hard one; all he had to do was pacify a system or two of a new species, find the Prothean cache behind 314, and keep his men alive. A simple, if underhanded in the larger scheme of things, plan.

The problem he was having though was with the fact he had no idea what to expect. This species was an unknown, aside from what the clan-less had told the leadership of their ships, which was how durable they were. That told them nothing of how powerful their weapons were, what their biology was, or what to expect. If a ship had been captured alive, then they could have at least examined it and the corpses inside to get a general idea of their mindset and prepare accordingly. As it was, he was leading men into an unknown situation. As a general, he hated dealing with unknowns.

He hadn't ascended the ranks through family connections or political maneuvering, no Turian did; that was left to the Asari and Salarian's. No, he'd ascended by following orders to the letter, expert combat skills, but most importantly, a willingness to make the hard decisions in battle. Every time he led troops into battle, it was with the most information possible so he could prepare accordingly and give his men the best chance of survival. In this situation, with no information, all he could tell them was to prepare for everything. He knew they'd do just that; eat a full meal, mod their weapons for any possibility, and get in last minute practice.

Still, despite how Desolus knew his men were the best in the Hierarchy for a reason, he also knew what the chances were that there was another Rachni behind the relay; far too high. He'd read the history, partaken in the simulations, and listened to those few ancient Matriarch's and Krogan who participated in the Rachni War. That didn't do anything to mitigate the... nervousness he felt at that possibility.

He didn't show how he felt; that would be unfitting of a Turian of his station. Instead he was the picture of calm stoicism, someone that his men would look to for guidance.

"Something wrong, general Desolas?" Blinking, Desolas turned toward the admiral in charge of his fleet, Admiral Oraka. He was a distinguished admiral, one he'd fought with against Krogan warlords. He was a sound strategist in space, and like Desolas, he believed in keeping his men alive.

He shook his head. "No, admiral, I'm just thinking about the upcoming battle."

The admiral chuckled. "And why's that? Worried about the space portion of the battle? Don't be; this species may have durable ships, but that means nothing if they've no idea how to conduct a battle in space. If they're truly a new species, then centuries of Turian experience in space will show these upstarts our skill. If they've been in space for a few centuries like we were before we encountered the Asari, then I'm confident that my skill will allow me to overwhelm the defense fleet and establish a foothold in their territory for future covert assaults."

Despite himself, Desolas let out a chuckle. "Well at least one of us is confident that this species will prove no challenge."

"Make no mistake, Desolas. This will not be so easy we'll incur no losses. If we assume their weapons are similarly advanced as their armor, then I expect to lose a few ships." The admiral explained. "And we both know that ground combat is far more dangerous than space combat."

Desolas nodded. "I know that, but what I'm more worried about for my part is if we encounter another Rachni. You and I both know that simulations are poor substitutes for actual combat."

"Well, we'll find out what this new species is made of in a few hours when we enter the system." Oraka gestured to the window at the fleet outside the flagship. "Take the time to rest and prepare yourself; me and the fleet will handle what comes next."

* * *

 **Shanxi Defense Fleet, Empire Cruiser _'ESV Iwo Jima',_ Orbiting Shanxi**

Admiral Alexander Goto was not having the best of days. As the Admiral of the Shanxi defense fleet, he'd expected a relaxing career; after all, no one was dumb enough to attack Shanxi. Anyone who even attempted to attack Shanxi, the symbol of Humanity's unflinching capability to withstand an alien threat, were quickly reminded why Shanxi and its people had earned that title.

Of course, that only accounted for Humans. As he'd found out mere days ago, it seemed that aliens were more than willing to attack Humanity. Which meant that since Shanxi was behind the aliens only link Humanity, they'd be coming to assault them. If he were the praying type, then he'd have made his peace with his gods by now.

"Have you made it into the bunkers?" But he wasn't, and instead he was speaking with his family for what may be the last time.

"We have, but it's a bit cramped down here. I mean, all things considered, it's more spacious than you'd think since a few hundred million people are down here, but still..."

Despite himself, Alexander let out a chuckle and smiled. "Well, when this is all over, maybe I'll suggest to the brass that we expand the tunnels." He paused for a moment. "Hibiki, how's Kasumi?"

"She's good; a bit confused about what we're doing exactly. She keeps asking when we'll be going home and when you'll be back." Hibiki sighed and looked to the side, presumably at Kasumi. "I've had to promise to get her a pony and a year's supply of candy, then a trip to Japan back on Earth, to distract her."

Alexander chuckled. "Well, despite the hit our bank accounts may take after that, I think she'll deserve it after this. Has she been keeping her hands to herself?"

Hibiki nodded. "For the most part, yes." At his raised eyebrow, his husband chuckled. "She's only stolen a few things, nothing anybody would have missed, but I made her put them back."

"Good; I'd hate to cause your guards any distractions because of her. They'll have enough problems soon enough."

Hibiki frowned and leaned forward. "Alex, I can tell you're worried. Are you... are you going to be alright?"

He put on a smile and nodded. "Of course, dear. I may be worried, but I'm more than confidant that I'll repel these aliens before the day is over and we'll all be back home in a few days."

"I hope you're right. Promise me though that you won't take any risks, and that if things start to turn bad that you'll abandon ship."

That was a promise they both knew he couldn't keep, but these words would help his husband, so Alexander would tell him whatever he needed. "Don't worry, I promise. No risks for me."

"Sir!" An ensign shouted. "The relay is activating and unknown contacts are pouring out of it!"

Alexander nodded and stood to go stand with his crew. "I've gotta go, Hibiki. Stay safe; I love you."

"I love you too." The signal was ended as Alexander lowered his Omni-Tool and he stood at the CIC.

"How many?"

"216 contacts, sir." A tense silence followed as the entire bridge took in that number. They were outnumbered nearly 4 to one; if anyone in the Shanxi defense fleet had any delusions that they could win this before, then those were gone now as they beheld the attack fleet in front of them.

"What are their classes?"

"Most of them are frigate class sir, and for every three of them, there's a cruiser." The ensign paused. "There's also a Dreadnought in the middle of the fleet sir."

Alexander sighed and stared at the enemy fleet as it moved into range. ' _There's no possible way we're winning this. Best we'll be able to do is slow them down and buy as much time as we can for General Williams and his men down on the planet. Thankfully, we've got an order just for this situation.'_

"Tell all ships that the Szigetvar Protocol is now in effect, and ALL weapons are now authorized for use. Inform them to use the asteroid field between us and the aliens as cover, and if their weapons are disabled, to jump as closely as possible to the enemy and self-destruct."

The ensign nodded and began transmitting the orders as soon as he'd finished speaking.

Szigetvar was a well-known protocol among Humanity. Named after the famous siege of Szigetvar by the Ottoman on Earth, it had been devised about mid-way through the Human-Hive War to buy as much time for defenses on the planet when a defense fleet was drastically outnumbered. It was never used when there was any possibility of victory, since it entailed breaking laws that Humanity had in place for centuries, and throwing away their lives to simply buy time, no retreat allowed. It had been opposed at first as a useless order, but when fleets that used the protocol bought enough time for their planets to mount enough defenses to hold until reinforcements came, it became common-place.

It also had never been used since the end of the Human-Hive War; they'd never had a need to use it until now.

As both fleets moved within range of each other, Alexander glanced at his own fleet's strength. Comprised of Frigate's and Cruiser's, he didn't have much fire-power; there were only a few nukes spread out across the entire fleet, so he'd have to have his men concentrate their fire on only a few ships at a time if he wanted to do damage. Thankfully he had a trump card that he doubted the aliens would expect.

He just hoped that they proved their worth for the first time since the Human-Hive War.

* * *

 **Turian Ninth Fleet, Dreadnought ' _Honor in Vigilance'_**

Admiral Oraka was not a man who underestimated his enemies. Years of fighting Krogan, expecting simple brutes who charged forward like savages in space combat, then losing countless ships to cunning commanders had taught him how deadly that could be.

It was why when his fleet had arrived in system and found only 60 ships of Frigate and Cruiser weight-classes, he'd spent a moment analyzing them before issuing his orders. They had nearly twice as many ships as his people had when they had first activated a Relay, and about as many as his people had guarding the standard colony. It was impressive assuming this was the their homeworld, but it put him on edge. The stations in orbit of the planet supported the theory it was their homeworld, but until he could get an accurate scan of the planet, he'd withhold any assumptions.

"Sir, alien fighters are moving ahead of the fleet and coming toward us." An ensign informed him.

Oraka nodded. It seemed the battle was starting; it was time to see how these aliens fought. "Inform the Frigate's and Cruisers to launch their Big Wing formations and meet the enemy; once they've handled them, they are to follow standard procedure and fire their torpedoes outside of the aliens effective Guardian Laser range."

"Transmitting orders now sir."

Once the fighter's dealt with the aliens, he could use his fleets superior number to their maximum effectiveness. Unlike normal where fleets would jockey for superior positioning or ship-vs-ship knife-fights, he suspected this would be over in a few hours. He had more than enough ships to simply surround and engulf the enemy in overlapping firing vectors, and he intended to do just that.

"The frigates and cruisers are almost within minimum firing distance sir." The ensign told him.

Moments after the ensign said that, just as their fighters clashed with the enemy's, the alien fleet fired. His slight surprise at the range their ships had aside, he expected them to impact his ships and cause minor damage, perhaps take down a few shields and cause a few hull-breaches. What he got instead were violent flashes of light as six of his frigates exploded upon impact with the alien rounds.

A lesser general, a more arrogant one, would have spent time sputtering in rage and rationalizing this as a fluke, something a new species had done with luck or because of incompetence on the captains' parts, and in turn lose more lives in the process. Unfortunately for the aliens, he wasn't one of them.

"How long until we're within range!?"

"We're within range now sir!"

Oraka nodded. "Good; order the frigates to fire at the ships with their MAC's, and the cruiser's to be ready to fire if they move to dodge."

Once his orders were transmitted, his ships followed his orders to the letter. The frigates opened fire in a volley of explosive death that sped towards the aliens' ships like a rainfall. He didn't have to wait long for the aliens to lose some of their own ships; either to the continuous volley of fire his frigates were launching at them, or his cruisers carefully timed shots that hit the evading ships. Some could escape with their lives, but many went up in flames, and those that did escaped didn't do so unscathed. Already he could see a few ships that had lost power to their main weapons.

In one attack he had halved the alien defensive fleet, and had only lost six of his own.

"Inform the frigate packs to begin surrounding the remaining enemy ships, and for the cruisers to begin making their way to the enemy homeworld. The enemy won't do anything being hounded by our frigates." Oraka ordered. "What's the status of our fighters?"

"Nearly 50% have been lost sir."

His eyes widened a fraction at that. "How many have the aliens lost."

"Unknown, but we're getting reports that the enemy fighters are capable of engaging 5 of our own at once."

Oraka sighed. "Inform a few frigates to wade into battle; their Guardian Lasers should be able to turn the tide of that battle."

"What of the stations orbiting the planet sir?"

"They likely only have a few garrisoned troops and Guardian Lasers. Once we land troops on the planet, we'll dispatch some to capture the stations."

"Yes sir!"

* * *

 **Turian Apex Fighter, Shanxi Space**

Brimus Melion was a veteran of decades of military service. He'd fought on the ground against pirates for his required time, then moved on to become a pilot. During his time as a pilot, he'd fought against the cunning pirates, the advanced Asari, and the tricky Salarian's in dogfights. Each one had earned his respect for the numerous close-calls he'd had over the years. Throughout it all, he, his brothers, and sisters had shown the galaxy why Turian's were the undisputed best pilots in the galaxy.

At least, they were until they'd met these aliens. They had advanced fighters; skilled pilots capable of outmaneuvering any of them; a coordination with each other that should be commended; and tactics that he'd have never thought of before, but in hindsight were obvious. Their skill was only accentuated when he saw them kill his fellows in droves; it served to fill him with a sense of dread when he saw that the only way to kill these pilots was by using swarm tactics.

Perhaps they wouldn't have if they'd entered the battle seriously. He and the others had come into the battle expecting primitive fighters that were destroyed after a few shots, and would only take a few minutes to eliminate before they moved on to the war ships.

They'd paid for underestimating this enemy. 30% of them had been lost in the initial clash, and that number had only gone up in the hour since they'd begun. At this rate, they'd all die and give the enemy fighters the chance to do... whatever it was their mission was in the first place.

Glancing at his radar, Brimus saw that an enemy pilot was on his tail. Swearing under his breath, he active his thrusters and sped through the wreckage that surrounded them. As he expected, the enemy pilot was able to follow him with ease as he maneuvered through the debris of their ships. He zoomed past a floating corpse of an alien, its armor charred and helmet cracked open. Were he not in a life or death situation, he'd have taken some time to examine that which had killed numerous of his fellow Turians.

His fighter shook as the alien's shots impacted his Kinetic Barriers. Glancing at the readings, he could see that it was violently flashing red. That was a simple indicator that they were gone and if he didn't do something quickly, he'd be dead. Thankfully, years of experience had taught what to do in this situation: go with his gut.

He did a barrel roll.

If any of the instructors in the academy had seen him perform that maneuver they'd have had his head, but he was desperate, and he'd seen the aliens perform the same maneuvers themselves. Why not take a page out of their book and try it for himself?

His risky maneuver paid off in the end thankfully, as the enemy pilot was unprepared for that maneuver. It was understandable; during the entire battle none of his fellows had performed a single maneuver like the aliens that they seemed to be adept at. It likely wouldn't work twice, but he wasn't about to let go of this opportunity.

He fired his disrupter torpedoes at the enemy pilot, and despite his best efforts, the torpedoes impacted and his enemy perished soon after in a violent explosion.

Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, he saw a frigate appear in the middle of the battle. Before he could even identify which side it was on, it used its Guardian Lasers to cut down droves of the alien fighters. They exploded in brilliant flashes of light, and he could hear his comrades cheer over the comms at the reinforcement. He let out a chuckle and joined up with what was left of his squadron. With the frigate here, they could finish off this battle quickly and move to engage the planet.

Within minutes, the alien fighters had been hunted down and eradicated. It seemed that despite their skill, even they couldn't take on a warship by themselves. Oddly enough, he'd seen them attempt to do just that, and the fighters and bombers within the alien attack formation had charged the frigate. Unfortunately for them, the Guardian Lasers, and what remained of the Turian pilots, proved too much for them to handle and they were killed before they could perform whatever it was they planned.

As he and his fellow pilots all moved to begin harassing the enemy warships, Brimus stole a glance at the wreckage of the alien craft. They were impressive, and regardless of what happened after this battle was over, he knew that they would benefit the Hierarchy with both their skill and technology.

Regardless of whether or not they were willing.

* * *

 **Empire Cruiser 'ESV Midway'**

Captain Jacob Cutter slammed his glass down on the bar in front of him and sighed. "So, what's our status?"

"Sir, our weapons are disabled, we're venting atmosphere on multiple decks, and our Kinetic Barriers are offline; we're dead in the water." His XO replied over the comms. Jacob could hear the panic in the man's voice clear over the comms and sighed. The man was young, too young to be in a situation like this, so he let his lapse in discipline slide. It was a wonder he was so calm, given the fact he was likely about to die.

He was an old man; he'd be a century old in a few months. He'd been all over Human space, fought against pirates, rebels, but most importantly, the Hive. He was there during the climactic battles, repelled boarding parties of hundreds of the tiny versions of the monsters, even once managed to survive his ship crashing planet-side and managing to hold off hundreds until he and his men were evaced. After all those situations, where he faced a slow death by being eaten alive instead of a quick explosion, this was nothing to really fear. Truthfully, once he'd seen the enemy fleet in system, he'd known fighting was a lost cause and had come down to the bar for one last drink.

"What of our engines?"

"They're still online sir. Why?" His XO's confusion was clear over the comms.

He snorted and poured himself another glass of whiskey. "Because Tanner, you do remember what the admiral's orders were, correct?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Now, order the engineers to destabilize the core, and for the pilot to initiate a jump in the middle of the fleet."

"Sir?"

Jacob sighed. "Szigetvar Protocol is in effect; that means no retreating. If we try then our own ships will fire on us for doing so, and we'll potentially doom lives down on Shanxi. So, give the orders to the engineers and pilot, and make your peace while you still can."

"...yes sir." The comm cut out after that and Jacob sighed.

"At least I'll finally get to see you again, Maria. You'd better be waiting for me with open arms when I get up there." He felt his ship perform the jump just as he finished speaking, and he smiled for the last time.

* * *

 **Turian Cruiser ' _Honor Redeemed'_**

Captain Procmius sighed as he beheld the battle before him.

He snorted; this wasn't a battle. It was a slaughter in every sense of the word. Perhaps the aliens were putting up more of a fight than initially expect, and had proved crafty in taking out fifteen of the fleets ships, there was simply no possible way for 60 to take on hundreds. Already the last of the ships were being picked off now, and those few that were disabled were secondary targets that would be used to secure POW's.

Quimius would admit to a respect for the aliens after this battle. Despite being drastically outnumbered, they'd taken out more ships than anyone had expected them to, and fought with a ferocity and skill that any Turian could respect. Not once had they transmitted a message of surrender, not a single ship had turn and run. They were determined to try to protect this world, their homeworld or not, with everything they had and take as many Turian's with them. It was almost primitive how they threw their lives away.

Still, despite his respect for them, there was one feeling that meant he couldn't put his all into this fight: a feeling of unbridled guilt. He'd been the one to discover this species, and he'd been the one who couldn't prevent his captain from destroying the aliens' ships. Maybe if he'd chased them through the Relay he could have prevented the deaths of so many. But he didn't, and instead he was here, fighting a new species because the Turian Hierarchy wanted whatever technology they had to save their economy. If there were ever a less honorable thing, then he'd never heard of it. Still, it was also the smart thing to do, and he knew his people needed it, so he followed the orders of his superiors in this subjugation.

As his mind was preoccupied with guilty thoughts, he didn't hear his ensign until it was too late.

"Sir! Enemy ship just jumped in front of-"

That was all Quimius could hear before he and his entire ship died in a violent explosion of fire and radiation. For one small second all they and the alien crew felt was searing, unimaginable pain, before it stopped in an instant.

* * *

 **Turian Dreadnought ' _Honor in Vigilance'_**

Admiral Oraka could only numbly stare at the battle in front of him. It had been going so well; the last of the enemy were being picked off, the fighters had managed to survive their battle, and they had disabled enough ships that to have prisoners in case they needed to force a surrender. Then one of the Spirits-damned disabled ships had jumped in the middle of his fleet and self-destructed.

On its own it wouldn't have done more than damage the Kinetic Barriers, but when five ships were destroyed, and nearly a dozen more damaged, he'd been able to deduce that cruiser had carried nuclear weapons. When his men informed him of the astronomically high amount of radiation one would only find because of a nuclear bomb, it only confirmed his fears.

Before he'd even been able to react, the five other supposedly disabled and harmless ships had jumped in the middle of his fleet so close their ships were touching his own, and detonated. The results were the same as before; countless dead and injured, and many damaged ships. The only consolation for him was that only one Human ship remained, and it didn't appear to be surrendering.

"Order all ships to open fire on the final enemy cruiser." His orders were relayed immediately, and he was greeted by hundreds of shots lighting up the cruiser. Its barriers and armor held up for the first few shots, but those gave in quickly under the combined fire of the entire Turian fleet. Even as it imploded and explosions raced across the hull of the ship, his fleet kept firing. It eventually exploded in a ball of fiery light and what little remained of it drifted through space.

With the final ship destroyed, Oraka sighed. "How many did we lose?"

"17 frigates and 9 cruisers, sir. 12 frigates and 7 cruisers are reporting extensive damages from the battle, sir." The ensign informed him.

Despite himself, Admiral Oraka was impressed. That was far more than any had expected them to lose upon entering the system. Even if they had resorted to using nuclear weapons, he felt his respect for the aliens grow; they'd fought to the last man and hadn't once offered to surrender. If they had then he'd have accepted and treated them as he would any POW, but they hadn't, and in doing so shown a similarity to his own species to protect what was theirs.

"The cruisers will reach the planet soon, sir."

"Good; I'll go inform Desolus to prep his troops. Plot a course for the-" Before he could finish his sentence, he saw three violent flashes of light above the planet. He spun on the spot to see just what had caused that; he didn't need to hear his ensigns tell him three cruisers had just been destroyed. They were they only thing approaching the planet after all.

It was then, as three more cruisers, and with them thousands upon thousands of Turian's, went up in flames that he saw what had done this: the space stations.

He growled. "Order all ships to fire on those stations now. Men, get our ship a firing solution on the closest one!"

The aliens were clever; he'd dismissed those stations as simple civilian platforms like the Citadel in that they were meant to house life inside them. In doing so, they'd been able to capitalize on this and hide them until any ships got close to the planet. The worst part was that he knew that for he, or any of his ships for that matter, to fire on the stations, they'd have to get close and risk their own hides to do so.

He could tell from how easily they destroyed cruisers in a single shot, and how those same shots would punch through frigates with ease and continue to hit another ship, that they hit just as hard, if not harder than his own Dreadnought. Thanks to their numbers, many ships had been able to get in close and open fire on the stations; unfortunately, those had all been frigates, and their shots were impacting the strong Kinetic Barriers the stations had.

Indeed, it seemed like the stations were focusing solely on the cruisers, or the frigates who got in the way. At this rate, they'd lose too many cruisers to launch a substantial invasion and have to call in the rest of the Ninth Fleet from patrol duty. That would draw the attention of the Asari and Salarians, and then all of this would be for naught!

"We're within range now sir!"

"Fire at will!" His ship shuddered as its main cannon fired, but he wasn't disappointed at the result. He felt a Turian smile stretch across his face as he saw the stations barriers shatter under the combined fire of his fleet and dreadnaught. Not soon after, it was succumbed to his fleets firepower and exploded in a blinding flash of white light.

Wasting no time, he pointed to the next station. "Order all ships to focus fire on that one and get me a firing solution on it!"

As his fleet moved to orient themselves toward the station, it and its surviving fellow didn't ignore how much damage his ship had done. They immediately fired open in own ship, and he saw frigates explode before his eyes as they tried to shield his ship from those devastating stations. It was all for naught however, as one of the shots travelled through a frigate and plowed into his ship with enough force to send him and his crew to the ground.

Dragging himself up, he turned spoke up, "Damage report!"

"Kinetic Barriers at 3% sir!"

Oraka's eyes widened when the information reached him. If another shot hit him or his ship then they wouldn't survive, and this invasion would lose both its Admiral and General at the same time, and they'd lose the only viable offensive option against these stations. He couldn't let that happened, not when so many lives depended on him.

"Charge our cannon to 100% and fire! Order all ships to shield us until then!" It may have been callous, but the 'Honor in Vigilance' was their best shot at destroying the stations.

The fleet followed his orders without hesitation and continued to fire upon the stations, while simultaneously guarding his own ship. The only thing he could compare it to was a group of dozens of Varren attacking a Krogan Battlemaster, simply whittling it down until the alpha could close in for the kill; It usually never worked.

Thankfully for him and his men, it did, and his ship fired at 100%. The round impacted with enough force that, were it to hit a planet, it would leave a crater larger than Palaven's capital city, and deep enough to reach bedrock. Against this station though, it was less devastating, but no less destructive. The barrier splintered as though it wasn't even there, and the round slammed into the station with no resistance. Almost no time passed between the deadly round hitting the station and it exploding in a ball of blinding white light so bright that every ship stopped firing for a moment to let it clear up.

Unfortunately for the remaining station, during the time no one had been firing, his ship had been charging its main gun again. When the battle resumed and his ships returned to firing on the station, he ended it minutes later with one final blast from his Dreadnoughts cannon.

Unlike before, this one didn't explode in a ball of light like the others. Instead, it stopped firing and floated before his fleet motionless. Admiral Oraka could see fires raging across the entirety of the station, and hull breaches covered a large portion of the station, but he could still see that it was online. That left only one reason for why it wasn't firing at him and his people anymore; it's main gun was offline.

"Order all ships to stop firing on the station; it's no longer a threat." He'd tell General Desolas to send teams to secure the station while he went down to the planet. If they could acquire the plans for a defensive station of this power, then they could free-up ships for patrols, perhaps even prepare for a war with the Terminus in the future if they no longer had to guard their planets.

Time would only tell if this station, and the technology the Primarch's wanted on the planet, was worth it. For now, though, he had to notify the general, and hope that the ground assault wasn't as taxing as the space battle was.

* * *

 **Authors Note: So...? What'd you guys think? Was it good? Bad? Absolutely horrible? Meh? Please do let me know! I'd love to hear your thoughts on how this can improve, and what you liked or didn't like, and I'll address it as best as I possibly can.**

 **Oh, and I'm still uncertain if I should give a Codex for certain things, so please let me know which you'd prefer so I don't make a mistake doing something a majority of you won't like.**

 **Anyway, don't forget to favorite, follow, and review. Bye!**


	4. Landfall

**Authors Note: ... I am so sorry for being gone so long guys. Really, I am. School's been a terror for me the past month and I haven't had much time to post anything. I don't know how to feel about this chapter, but I feel like since you all were kept waiting so long, you deserved something nice now.**

 **Just so you know, when the bit about the Citadel Conventions come up, please read that section very carefully, because I answer any questions and worries you have about it there. Of you do still have any questions that, feel free to ask.**

 **Anyway, on with the chapter!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own Mass Effect. It belongs to Bioware.**

* * *

 **Turian Ninth Fleet, Dreadnought** ** _'Honor in Vigilance'_**

General Desolas was not the most knowledgeable when it came to space combat between ships. All he understood were the basics; ship positioning was key, the one who controlled range usually won, and the one with more dreadnoughts had a large advantage over their opponents.

Even to him though, what he was hearing sounded impossible. "How did we lose so many, Admiral? I thought we outnumbered them 4 to 1?"

His naval counterpart sighed. "We did, but they proved more ruthless than we expected. Where a traditional enemy would have tried to sue for peace, or at the very least surrendered when their ships were being destroyed and burning around them, this species was determined to take as many of us with them. It was almost Turian how they defended this planet."

Desolas could hear an amount of grudging respect in Oraka's voice, but he still needed to clear things up. "That still doesn't explain the numbers of lost and damaged ships."

"They apparently carried nukes aboard their ships, and when their ships were burning and falling apart around them, they manually jumped as close to our ships as possible and detonated. In addition to the explosive damage, the radiation given off confused our sensors and jammed communications for the affected ships for a short while, which the aliens capitalized on to do the same thing aging until they were wiped out."

"Did they launch any escape pods? Can we capture any to decode their language and start interrogations?"

Oraka shook his head. "No, unfortunately they stayed on the ships as they exploded; it seems they couldn't set the jump to our ships and make it to the escape pods at the same time. We've done what we could to find what little bodies of the aliens are floating through space, but they're damaged to such a large degree we don't have a true picture of what they look like beyond being Turianoid in shape and roughly around our height."

"Is there anything else I should know, Admiral?"

Oraka nodded and raised his Omni-Tool, and an image of a station appeared above his Omni-Tool. The station itself looked like it had once been impressive and imposing, but it now burned and appeared to be falling apart. He noticed right away why this was important: the giant cannon the station seemed to be built around.

"You want me to send troops to capture the station?"

"Yes. We lost a lot of troops to these stations, and our ship was nearly taken out by one. I believe that if we're able to capture the station, then we could learn to build our own for colony defense."

Desolas hummed in thought. "I'll send a few squads to scout the station. They've shown their willingness to self-destruct and deny us the chance of capturing anything of theirs intact. I won't risk a large contingent of troops trying to capture it, just to lose them as soon as they set foot on it. If they don't detonate the station, then I'll free some troops to send to the station."

"I understand, General." Oraka nodded and typed at his Omni-Tool. "I'll send you the scans and intel of the planet we've managed to gain and leave you be to prepare to brief your troops."

As Desolas looked through all of the information at his talontips, his mind went over all the possible scenarios that could occur on the planet. While the threat of another Rachni had been assuaged, he was still cautious about the situation. Their attitude towards space combat was worrying, since it brought all sorts of possible nightmares on the ground, from mines to sacrificial attacks, it didn't matter. All of them would be damaging to his army.

He was absolutely certain that his forces would be capable of conquering the planet - everything the Admiral had sent him confirmed this - but it also presented some... complications that would be costly for the Hierarchy. Thankfully, Primarch Fedorian had sent _them_ with the regular forces, a full squad of them, so if need be he could utilize them to deal with anything that would unnecessarily cost good Turian's their lives. He'd prefer not to use them for that though. He remembered what happened last time they'd been deployed.

"You look worried, brother. What's on your mind?"

Recognizing the voice, Desolas lowered his Omni-Tool and spun around to be greeted by his brother. Grinning, he shook his head.

"Nothing you need to worry about, Saren; I'm just going over the information the admiral's sent me." His eye roamed over his brothers form, or more specifically, his armor. "That armor suits you well, Saren. You look like a member of the Blackwatch already. I'm proud of you."

Saren gave a Turian smirk. "Thank you, brother. Since you're so proud of me, mind telling me where exactly I'll be in this little invasion?"

Desolas raised an eyebrow. "You'll be sent down last, with the rest of the Blackwatch and specialists in the army. You'll hear the rest of your orders from your squad leader once I send out the orders for everyone."

"Come on, brother, can't you give me some idea of where I'll be? At least assure me I won't be kept out of the fighting just because we're family."

Desolas rolled his eyes. "Don't be absurd, Saren. You know it's against the rules to show preferential treatment to family, and that isn't what this is. You're brig sent down last because you and the other specialists are of higher value than the common soldier, so we can't afford to lose you because of any surprises they may have. Besides, you're Blackwatch, I couldn't keep you out of danger even if I tried."

Saren chuckled. "Hasn't stopped you from trying before though; I still remember when I was a common soldier under your command and y company was always coincidently placed at the back as support, or used to guard staging grounds."

"And every time no assault ever failed, not staging grounds overtaken." Desolas gave his brother a good-hearted oat on the back. "You've proven yourself already, so I've no idea why you're always so eager to fight in the thick of it. I've even heard of how a few Specter's have been asking about you."

Saren shrugged and tried to hide his proud grin. "Well, they obviously recognize talent when they see it." He paused for a moment and gestured towards the closed door. "How many inexperienced troops do we have anyway, while we're on the topic?"

This caused Desolas to sigh and lightly flex his claws. "Less than you'd think, but more than you'd hope. I've no idea why the Primarchs wanted to send inexperienced soldiers on a mission like this, but with careful enough planning, they should be put to good use here."

"If anyone could make the most out of them, it's be you, brother."

Smiling, he stalked toward the door and pressed the haptic button. "Thank you, Saren. Now, I have to finish planning, and you need to go meet up with the rest of your squad." First though he needed to send that order to a few scouts to board that station.

"Right, I'll see you once we make plant the Hierarchy's flag in the capital of whatever this planet is called. Metaphorically of course."

* * *

 **Orbital Stationary Gun Platform(OSGP), _'Hells Wrath'_**

Captain Daniel Harrison struggled to his feet, wincing in pain as he felt a throbbing soreness in his right leg. Glancing around, he saw that while there were a few stationary fires and collapsed beams, for the most part the bridge was in good condition. The entirety of his bridge crew were alive as well, if injured to carrying degrees.

That was more than he could say for the rest of the station. He'd underestimated the power of those dreadnoughts, thought that since their frigates and cruisers did such pitiful damage to their shields that they'd be fine, and his fellow station captains concurred. They'd paid the price for that underestimation with their lives and the complete loss of their stations. Even when he'd learned from their mistakes and focused all his fire on that ship, they'd managed to disable the station. Since they hadn't finished it off, that only left the conclusion that they were sending teams here to capture it. That left only one option, one that every Human officer knew.

It was a sobering thought, and one he didn't want to think about, but the self-destruction of this station was the only option. Hopefully they'd be able to take some of the alien freaks with it, but he wasn't optimistic about that. The alien commanders likely understood that was a possibility and might just leave them floating here until they managed to hack into it and cut off their oxygen.

"Ensign, what's the status of the station?"

"Most of the station is damaged beyond repair sir." An ensign shouted. "Most of the station is reporting a loss in power or gravity, and everything below deck 12 is has multiple hull breaches. Our shields are also offline and incapable of coming back sir. We're also getting reports of fires raging across decks three, 4, and 6. Many are reporting in injured, or aren't reporting in at all sir."

Daniel grimaced. That was a lot of damage, and were he not about to order the destruction of the station, he'd be worried that it might fall apart on its own.

"Tell everyone to get to the nearest escape pod they can, and initiate the self-destruct sequence. Set the timer for 10 minutes."

A few moments of silence and shock gripped the deck after he announced that, but they went about giving his orders. As they did, he gazed out the window at the enemy fleet above the planet. They'd certainly done a number on the aliens, more so than anyone could have possibly expected them to, but he doubted it'd be enough to give them second thoughts of assaulting Shanxi. If anything, it'd only make them more careful, and in turn, more dangerous. He hoped General Williams had a plan to hold out against them.

A shout from behind him tore his thoughts away from that. "Sir, engineering isn't responding to our signals; we can't activate the self-destruct sequence without them sir."

"Fuck." He swore under his breath. "Alright then, tell sergeant Ruso to take a team and head down to engineering to inform them of the order." At the very least, the silver lining of this set back was that the rest of the crew would have more time to reach the escape pods now.

"Yes s-"

"Sir! Enemy boarding craft are in-bound to the station! ETA is 10 minutes." Another ensign interrupted.

Daniel sighed. "This just isn't my day... Alright! Tell the sergeant that his orders are the same, but inform the rest of the station to prepare to hold off invaders until we can initiate the self-destruct! Ensign, is the armory still intact?"

"Yes sir! The armory's of decks 1-7 are undamaged and still contain weapons!"

"Tell everyone to head to the nearest armory or grab the nearest weapon they can, and set up choke points at every major junction in the ship."

As his crew rushed to inform the rest of the station, or sped out the doors to go join the rest of the defense, he walked toward the CIS - the very thing he'd used for exact locations of every ship in the space battle - and brought up a haptic view of the station, as well as the view of the cameras on the station to his Omni-Tool.

While the rest of the station defended it until the self-destruct, he would provide overwatch and make sure no tactical surprises went unnoticed.

* * *

Seitia Taninion checked over her weapon once more, reciting the Hierarchy national anthem in her head. Flicking her guns safety off and finishing the calibrations, she went over her teams orders silently in her head: go to the station above the planet, make sure it was safe to land on, and if it didn't self-destruct soon after, set up and secure entry zones for future troops.

It was simple enough an order, but it made her uneasy. She was used to scouting out dangerous areas for the other troops, being a scout entailed that, but that didn't normally mean she was at risk of being blown up the moment she stepped foot into an area.

"Any idea where we'll be touching down sir?" Glancing towards the source of the voice, she saw her friend and the squads resident sniper, Spumius, adjusting the scope of his sniper.

Their squad leader nodded and raised his Omni-Tool. "We're one of three teams that have been sent to scout out this defense platform, as you all know. The other two teams will be sent through two entry points; the hangar, and one of the hull breaches in the station. We, on the other hand, are being sent in near the portion of the station that is still intact and has power, and will cut our way in with the plasma torch." He explained.

"And if it turns out they set it to self-destruct?" Her squads resident engineer, Caelbius, asked.

"Then our sacrifice will ensure more Turian's don't lose their lives by boarding the station en-masse." Their squad leader responded. "Now, put on your helmets. We're almost there."

Doing as he said, she put on her helmet and twisted until she heard the telltale click that it was magnetically sealed onto her now. Holstering her rifle, she stood with the rest of her four man squad and jumped with the rest of her team towards the station when the door opened.

While maneuvering her way through what little of a debris-field there was between her team and the station, Seitia cast a glance towards the world they were assaulting. It looked like any other garden world, with dark blue oceans and giant landmasses; some portions of the planet were green which told of great forests and jungles, while others were scarred and looked as though there were vast deserts. What stood out the most were the lights from the city that she could see, giving away its position like a beacon of light.

Touching down on the side of the station, she glanced towards Caelbius as he worked at his Omni-Tool and scanned the station. All they needed to know before they could start cutting their way inside of the station was whether or not the atmosphere was even breathable for them; last thing they wanted was to have their helmets cracked or broken and die because the air was toxic. Or worse, the entire thing was filled with water because they were aquatic, like the Hanar. They weren't equipped for underwater combat.

"My scans tell me the atmosphere's breathable." He stated after a few moments. "There's also working gravity here, but once we cut through the atmosphere will be sucked out, and anyone that's on the other side of here will die. You're free to start cutting, Seitia."

Nodding, she took the plasma torch off her hip and activated it. Once she saw the blade flare to life with energy, she began cutting her way through the hull of the station. Steadying her breathing as the torch cut through the hull of the ship with ease, her thoughts turned to what they'd find inside. They'd been told the aliens were Turianoid in shape, but that was it. She wondered what they looked like, how they fought in close quarters, and what kinds of weapons they used.

Lowering her plasma torch and holstering it to her hip, she pushed the slab of metal she'd cut with her foot into the station and hopped in, rifle in hand. Aiming down the hallway in front of her, she heard the rest of her team do the same as her when the entered the station. Glancing around for any bodies, she found the hallway devoid of any life. While there was blood spattered across the ground and walls, red blood at that, and the hallway itself looked as though it had just survived an assault by a Cabal unit with collapsed support beams from the ceiling and the wall looking as though its outer layer had been torn clean off with the ease a Krogan could smash glass.

"Hallways clear, sir." Spumius said. "Where should we go sir?"

Her squad leader hummed as he inspected the hallway for a moment, inspecting it for any trace of where the aliens could have gone. After a moment of inspection, he raised his rifle and cautiously motioned for them to follow him. "This way; they left a trail for us to follow."

The fell into step with him as he led them down the hallway. At first she was confused as to what he was even using to determine where the aliens were, but then she saw it; tiny specks of red blood spattered across the once pristine floor in a linear path, as though someone was injured and holding themselves together as they hobbled to wherever their medbay was.

As they walked along the halls, securing it against any enemies that could be hiding, Seitia's mind wandered to the architecture around her. While she would never claim to be an expert on psychology, she did know enough, and had served in the military long enough, to know that an aliens mindset would sometimes bleed over into their architecture. Whereas her species was entirely utilitarian with every aspect of their architecture and so had little variety in their buildings, the Asari preferred lavish decorations and pointless curves that were pleasing to the eye. From what little she could determine from the coloring of their hallways and side rooms, this species was a combination of Turian's and Asari in the aspect. She may be entirely wrong, but it was the best she could do with the limited information she could see.

Shaking her head of these thoughts, Seitia stopped as they came upon a door at last. As she reached to touch the haptic button and open the door, her squad leader grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Wait." He said as he eyed the door with suspicion. "The aliens may know we're here and have set up an ambush on the other side of this door. You and Caelbius will take cover on either side of the door while I walk through to check. Spumius, there's a small crate a ways down the hallway. I want you to set up there and cover us from there, only moving up when do; your sniper won't be much use otherwise in such close quarters."

Doing as he said they all followed his orders to the letter setting themselves up behind cover in the exact positions he told them to. Once everyone was ready, he tapped the orange haptic button and waited for it to open. They all tensed and prepared for what was behind the door, finger on their triggers.

 _"Son of a bitch! They're here! Open fire!"_

Their tension and preparation was rewarded by the aliens shouting in their strange language, and gunfire following soon after. Unfortunately for the aliens, the moment it took them to shout was more than enough for Seitia's squad leader to dive behind cover just as the bullets impacted his previous position.

Hearing the telltale boom of Spumius's sniper, her and Caelbius leaned out of cover and sprayed the aliens with as much fire as their guns would allow. As their bullets impacted the barriers of the first alien guards, she did a quick examination of what state they were in. It appeared that they'd caught them unprepared, still moving crates and positioning themselves correctly to withstand an assault. A few of them didn't even appear to be wearing any armor of wielding a weapon, instead cowering behind their better prepared comrades.

The aliens surprise at their surprise attack lasted only a moment, and they recovered from it quickly enough as they dove behind cover themselves. Leaning back behind cover as the aliens returned fire, she glanced at her squad leader for guidance.

He raised his rifle above his cover and fired a short burst at the aliens. "Seitia, provide covering fire for Caelbius to move up! Caelbius, move behind that monitor there and deploy the attack drone! Spumius, take out the one in the hat!"

Nodding at her orders, she checked her rifles cooldown meter to make sure it could fire reliably again, and leaned out of cover holding down the trigger. Her bullets bounced harmlessly off the cover and barriers of the strange aliens, but it was enough to draw their attention towards her. As she felt their concentrated fire impact her kinetic barriers and break through them, forcing her back behind cover, she saw Caelbius run out and dive behind a crate just as the aliens tried to shoot him. Wasting no time, he deployed his attack drone behind the enemies.

Their surprise at a drone appearing behind them was evident, and the drone was able to kill one before they could react. Even when they did focus fire on it, they were all allowed to move up and return fire at them. The aliens leader, the one in the hat that her squad leader had pointed out earlier, was trying to rally his men just as they finished off the drone. He didn't get far though, as his head exploded in a blast of blood, gore, and bone courtesy of Spumius's rifle.

Seeing their leader die proved a fatal blow to them as they lost any sense of cohesion and fired wildly at them with no sense of purpose. Unclipping her grenade, she tossed it behind the aliens cover and ducked back down behind her own. She could hear their screams of alarm, and an explosion ripped through the air before any of them could do anything. Peaking out behind cover, she saw that the aliens were either dead on the ground, or bits of gore splattered across the room. Cautiously standing up, she saw her squad leader and Caelbius do the same and cautiously walk forwards.

She and her team checked the room over twice to make sure they didn't miss any of the aliens, they all lowered their guns and checked themselves over for any wounds.

"Spumius, you can come out now. The room is clear." Caelbius said over the comms. They didn't get any reply besides a grunt from their sniper friend.

"Take a few moments to rest and regain your bearings." Her squad leader ordered. "We'll move out in a few moments."

Nodding at him, she walked over towards one of the corpses and crouched down next to one. Grasping the aliens helmet, she began the process of prying it off of the corpses head. While it may have looked weird to her squad mates, she was curious as to what these aliens looked like. A few hadn't worn any armor, true, but that'd been in the heat of battle so she couldn't accurately say what they looked like. All she could see was that they had five finger like the Asari and Batarian's, and bled red.

She gasped as the helmet finally came off the alien. Whatever she'd been expecting, it hadn't been this!

The alien looked like an Asari, unnervingly so. It's eyes, while cold and lifeless now, appeared so Asari in appearance. It's face, while holding a more male appearance than the Asari, looked almost exactly the same besides the brown skin. In fact, that was one of the only differences between this alien and the Asari, its skin, the lack of tentacles with hair in its place, and the lack of 'breasts' as the Asari called them.

"Sir, come take a look at this." She called out after a few moments more of examining it.

"What is- oh... so that's what these things look like?" Her leader mumbled. After a few moments of looking the alien over, he raised his Omni-Tool. "It doesn't matter. I'll call the general to let him know the station is safe to send troops to."

Seitia blinked at him. "How do you mean sir?"

He gestured to the room they were in. "These aliens were setting up defenses when we interrupted them. They weren't mourning their lives or rushing to try to escape, they were preparing to face us. That means that they either can't or won't destroy this station, which means we've no fear of wasting Turian lives. I imagine the other teams will report something similar."

After a few moments, it seemed that the general answered. "General Arterius, sir! We've breached the station and secured an entry point for troops. They don't appear to be willing or able to destroy the station just yet, sir. It's safe to send troops to the station."

* * *

 **Hierarchy Dropship, Atmosphere of Shanxi**

There were few moments as exhilarating to Saren as entering the atmosphere of a planet within a dropship. The feeling of turbulence as the ship first encountered atmosphere, the uneasy feeling acquired in the gut once the realization there was nothing but a few inches of steel standing between him and his death, and the sound of AA-guns opening fire on the dropships. There was an undeniable fear that came with it, certainly, but it was moments like these, where his fate was completely out of his hands, where he felt truly alive.

He felt the ship shake as what must have been an AA round detonate near the ship. Like his squad mates, he paid it no mind and turned his attention towards his commander.

"We will be making landfall a few miles outside of the city. Once we make landfall, our objective will be to secure a landing zone for all of our forces to touch-down on, and set up a forward operating base. From there, we will be assaulting the capital of the aliens with everything we have." His commander brought up his Omni-Tool. An image of what must have been the aliens capital appeared before Saren's eyes.

The first thing he noticed was the walls that surrounded the city were towering structures that appeared modern; unlike the walls that surrounded many cities on Palaven, these didn't show any wear or tear from centuries of use. The next thing he noticed was how massive the city must have been, with towering skyscrapers, an abundance of living segments for its people, and ginormous bridges that connected the portions of the city separated by water. Of course, the most troubling thing Saren could see were the frankly _massive_ AA emplacements that were depicted on the roofs of the haptic image.

"Sir, why hasn't Admiral Oraka commenced light bombardment of the colony?" Saren couldn't help but ask. It was a valid question as far as he was concerned. Even though many within the public believed otherwise, a ship commencing LIGHT bombardment of a planet was not against Citadel Conventions. The Citadel Conventions only prohibited the use of WMD's within combat, things such as nuclear weapons, asteroids, or anything else that affected the future habitability of a Garden World. The standard Mass Accelerator, however, would only leave a small crater in its wake so long as it was used sparingly. A full powered bombardment from even a few ships for hours on end would undoubtedly destroy a planets biosphere just as effectively as a WMD, but no one would ever do that. Truth be told, it was fairly common practice for the Hierarchy to lightly bombard a planet to weaken the defenses, then send in the troops.

The fact they hadn't done so now was confusing. Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long for an answer.

His commander nodded. "Normally you'd be correct, Saren. However, it seems these aliens are just as cautious as we are." The ship shook once more. "Thee aliens have advanced colony shields around the capital, and every other major settlement on the planet. They've already fired on it to see if they could break through it with ease, but it's stood up to everything they've thrown at it. It's possible they could break it, but that would not only take time, time that the other Council races could use to find out about this invasion, but if we misjudged the power on even a single shot it could do immeasurable damage to the planet."

"Moving on," His commander said, "once we begin the assault on the city, Blackwatch's main objective will be to destroy the AA emplacements so our forces can descend on the planet without fear of reprisal. After that, if the colony shield isn't down yet, we are to move in and destroy them, before moving on towards their command center. Know this as well: even when we do take this city, it's possible the rest of the planet will continue fighting if they're anything like us. As such, be prepared to move on to the other cities dotting the planet, and for any guerilla tactics they may deploy against us once the city is taken."

"60 seconds to landfall!"

Hearing the pilots voice, Saren and the rest of his unit quieted down. Checking over his weapons once more, he made sure everything was as it should be; rifle polished and well taken care of, under-barrel bayonet serrated and scope calibrated for mid-range fights; pistol stabilizer and biotic amplifier in perfect condition; incendiary ammo standard use for his shotgun with an extra shot before it needed to cool-down; and with a clench of his talons, his biotics manifested with the same purple flare they always did.

"30 seconds!"

His loadout may have been better than what many of the common soldiers deployed with, but that was the luxury afforded to the Blackwatch. As the deadliest unit within the Hierarchy military, they were only ever equipped with the best equipment available, to compliment being the best within the Hierarchy.

"15 Seconds!"

As the newest member of the Blackwatch, the youngest to ever be enlisted to boot, he felt he had a lot to prove to his squad mates. He knew it was foolish, but when compared to his comrades decades of military service and potential hundreds of kills, he was probably less than what they'd expected for a squad mate. He planned to prove himself on the battlefield and show that he was a worthy addition, even if they didn't expect him to.

The ship shuddered as it finally stopped moving, and the mechanical doors slid open. Rushing out of the dropship with the rest of his squad, he ran out, weapon raised in preparation for a firefight. Instead, the battlefield was devoid of any hostile alien life, filled only with his fellow Turian soldiers rushing to set up the base and secure the area.

With a sigh, Saren lowered his rifle and looked towards the alien capital - a shining beacon in the distance surrounded by a shield of kinetic barrier, spewing forth its own deadly AA fire towards the heavens as it defied everything the Turian navy threw at it. The ripples sent throughout it were similar to ripples caused by skipping a stone across the surface of water, unbending as they dispersed the damage caused by the ships in orbit.

"Looks like the aliens have decided to stick solely to their city; a mistake on their part." His commander shouted over the booming sound of cannon-fire. "Come on, Saren, help me and the others instead of just standing there. It won't be long before the rest of our forces touch down."

* * *

 **UHE ICBM Silo, Crag Tooth Mountain Range**

Deep within the mountain range of Shanxi's largest continent, in a saddle between two nameless peaks, was a hole in the ground.

This was no mere hole in the ground formed naturally by tectonic plates or created by the bombs of the Human-Hive War. No, this hole was several hundreds of feet deep, the insides reinforced with Hercules-grade armor, and a large retractable roof covering the top of the silo. It housed within it a massive, oblong shape, narrowed to a fine point at the tip, with three fins at its base. It was pitch black in color, and covered in ablative coating designed specifically to reduce its sensor signature to that of a baby bird.

This was an Inferno Type 2 Rocket. With a range of thousands of miles and a payload capable of destroying an unshielded Empire Dreadnought in a single strike, and was one of the deadliest weapons within the entire arsenal of Humanity.

Now, it would be deployed for the first time since the Human-Hive War against Humanity's new invaders.

The VI in charge of this ICBM silo had been designed for one task; the maintenance and firing of the ICBM's. As soon as the orders had been transmitted, the VI had begun the process of bringing the missiles up to readiness. The missile was illuminated by floodlights as it stood in the middle of the silo, a small ray of light seeping through the ever-growing open hatch to reveal the weapon. It was held in place by several large mechanical arms, which were slowly retracting as it prepared to fire.

The missile silo was entirely automated; controlled by a VI, and guarded by various Spark Units and automated turrets. A team of engineers only ever came around once every month to ensure everything worked properly. It was more efficient this way, no delay in between receiving orders and preparing the missile.

This missile silo contained only four missiles, just like every other silo on Shanxi, but every silo made up for that with the coordination between each VI. When they launched the missiles, they launched them at the exact same time, one that had been calculated to the incoming horde of dropships as the targets, and the ideal launch time determined to have the most devastating effect.

The next few minutes were silent as the VI counted down the time to launch and directed all Spark unites to the dropships within it. Were an organic in charge of the silo, they would be sweating nervously, worried that the missiles would be detected, or that the silo would be found and destroyed before they could launch. The VI had no emotions though, no capacity to worry, no desires of its own; only a directive to follow UHE orders to the letter.

As the flames erupted from the bottom of the missiles and the thunderous roar of its engines echoed throughout the entirety of the silo, the VI sent the message to General Williams that the ICBM's had launched.

When the landing zones of the Turian's become a sequestered killzone where the troops within were annihilated within a fraction of a second, when the Human defenders within the shielded cities saw the destruction and cheered in their first victory, and when the Turian ships above opened fire on every missile silo that had launched their missiles, the VI did nothing but divert its Spark's away from the silo.

When the silo was destroyed, the VI felt nothing, simply sending all data it had recorded of the missiles success to UHE command for review, before it was destroyed in an instant.

* * *

 **Authors Note: ... so? What'd you guys think? Was it good? Bad? Meh? What you expected, or did I surprise you with some things? Please do let me know what you liked, what you hated, and what you'd prefer I improve. I'm open to any and all feedback I can use to improve this story.**

 **Now, before I go, I'm gonna try something to keep you all more involved and interact with you more. What's that? Why questions of course! Questions that could impact that story depending on your reaction, or could just let me know you all better. Unless of course you hate them, in which case this will be the only instance of it.**

 **So this weeks question is: How drastically should Humanity's second Cold War, the one between the four Hyperpowers, impact the technology? I'm undecided on how much it affects the tech, and would love your opinion.**

 **Anyway, goodbye everyone, and don't forget to favorite, follow, and review!**


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